NREGA threatening rural arts & crafts: Jaya Jaitley

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) might be doing good for the rural poor in helping them boost their income, but the scheme has emerged as a big threat to the traditional arts and crafts, said Jaya Jaitley who has pioneered handicraft movement in India. Jaitley, head of Dastkari Haat Samiti, is in Ahmedabad with around 90 artisans from different pockets in Indian states to exhibit their creations for sale at Ahmedabad Haat from November 18.

Jaitley, who is also a social activist and a politician, said that her team would transform Ahmedabad Haat into a vibrant Indian cultural hub. She said artisans from different parts of the country would also guide Amdavadis who are willing to learn different forms of art and craft.

About NREGA’s impact on the arts and crafts market, Jaitley said that the central government scheme is pulling artisans out of their traditional association with the arts and craft skills they possess from the ancestors. "To give you an example, artisans in Uttar Pradesh inherit skills to make badohi basket. Since women and men now prefer to go for alternative employment under the NREGA schemes with guarantee of 100 days employment and per day Rs100, they are losing interest in pursuing the traditional skills for a living," she said.

She said: "Not only poor artisans in rural parts are becoming lazy because of this, but also India is losing its treasure of arts and crafts.”

The exhibition will be inaugurated by Gujarat High Court judge justice Kalpesh Jhaveri and attended by cricketer and Jaitley’s son-in-law Ajay Jadeja.

Products that will be on display would include Madhubani art on metal boxes, Gond art on wooden trays, lacquer house accessories from Karnataka, bead jewellery from Madhya Pradesh, and Kantha embroidery from West Bengal.