Forty years after she embarked upon a journey to keep some of India’s crafts alive, and give dignity to craftspeople, Jaya Jaitly says she has reason to be optimistic. The Dastkari Haat Samiti she founded in 1986 has more than 1,600 members, including individual artisans and organisations, and their three annual craft exhibitions across the country receive an enthusiastic response. Speaking to BusinessLine on the sidelines of the Samiti’s first exhibition in Pune, Jaitly spoke on the subject she is passionate about. Edited excerpts:

There is a growing concern that our ancient crafts are dying and skilled artisans are an endangered species. What is your experience?

I am highly optimistic because I find a whole new generation of young craftspeople responding to the appreciation they are getting from the public.

There are many beautiful traditions and aesthetics that we may have lost.

For instance, some traditions of hand printing, old motifs, weaving techniques which were there in Varanasi, Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh are not prevalent as they are very difficult and many weavers think they do not get enough remuneration for this work.

But if you find sensitive people and work with them, and you provide a good market, everything has a potential for revival.

Do you feel that there may not be enough motivation to keep innovating?

These (crafts) are all living traditions and anything living has to be nourished.

The nourishment they need is the ability to change with contemporary tastes and access to market places.

That is why I followed the haat technique; here there is no middleman exploiting them, they get to meet the buyers directly to earn what will sell, and they get a fair price.

We often hear that our craft products don’t measure up for export markets. How true is this?

I believe very strongly in the domestic market. Just like Prime Minister Modi is saying ‘Make in India’, for the crafts sector I would say, ‘Sell in India’.

Our crafts our rooted to Indian culture, so Indians will appreciate them the most. We don’t want to be producing goods suiting Western tastes and changing according to their fashion trends, climate and festivals.

Export is a very tough business. It is only when can negotiate from a position of power that you can look overseas.

There is a 30-35 crore strong middle class that has potential purchasing power in India. Why do we leave it to malls and branded goods to attract them? Craftspeople have to learn to be competitive.

How economically viable is craftsmanship today?

Just to give you an idea, 200 Dastakari artisans notched a turnover of ₹9 crore during a two-week exhibition in Dilli Haat. Every year Delhi Tourism earns ₹3 crore from Dilli Haat!

You gave birth to the idea of permanent haats , or crafts bazaars. What new initiatives are there in the offing?

One big thing that I proposed during the 12th Plan discussions was the setting up of a Hastakala Academy on the lines of Sangeet Natak Academy and Lalit Kala Academy.

The scope of the Hastakala Academy will let artisans teach their craft.

It will also research, document and present the story around each craft.

The UPA government put it into the 12th Plan document, and the NDA has announced ₹30 crore initial corpus private and public partnership. We are now working on it.

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