A narrow road branching off from the main thoroughfare at Narbal town in Kashmir Valley’s Budgam district leads to the sleepy village of Gotapora. Merely two bends in the road after you enter it stands the single-storied modest house of the Mirs.

Inside the house, three challenged brothers — Tariq Ahmad Mir, Nazir Ahmad Mir and Farooq Ahmad Mir — are sitting side by side in one of the uncluttered rooms. With thread and needle in hands, they are busy sewing elaborate designs on Kashmiri shawls.

The Mir brothers have been suffering from Muscular Dystrophy (MD) since their childhood. This is a peculiar medical condition which causes the degeneration of muscles. As the disease progressed, it affected their mobility, restricting them to the four walls of their house.

“Due to the disability we could not do any other job, so we took to embroidery,” says Tariq Ahmad Mir, who has a penchant for the art. A post-graduate in Urdu and a die-hard poetry lover, Tariq says that he and his siblings learnt the craft from their father, Mohammad Sultan Mir, who used to be well-known in the area for his deftness in embroidery.

Discrimination

The three brothers worked for several years for the w astas (the middlemen in the shawl trade) for paltry remuneration. “We were paid scantly as a large cut of the profits would go to the middlemen, so we decided to form our own small group,” recalls Tariq.

In 2009, they created their own initiative called, ‘Special Hands of Kashmir’. Today, nearly 40 craftspersons are associated with the initiative and are earning their livelihood through it.

However, the disability-led group faces several challenges and feels it is due to discrimination. It is hardly ever invited by the State-run handicrafts department to any of its “buyer-seller meets’’ organised several times in the past at Srinagar.

The group is also not allowed to erect a stall at the India International Trade Fair (IIT) held every year in November in New Delhi.

“The State handicrafts department has never encouraged physically-challenged artisans. They have hardly ever given us a chance to showcase our skills at the State or national level,’’ says Farooq Ahmad Mir, who has more than 90 per cent disability.

Although a State handicrafts department official said that the artisans sent to participate in the exhibitions held outside the State were chosen from a random draw of entries, Tariq says the department, over the years, has failed to make any special arrangements for artisans with disabilities.

While other States encourage such ventures, Jammu & Kashmir does not.

The brothers say that products made by the physically challenged generally do not have significant market reach. In 2008, there was a glimmer of hope in the form of the Association for Rehabilitation Under National Trust Initiative of Marketing (ARUNIM), an initiative of National Trust under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Under this initiative, various marketing opportunities were provided to the people with disability by organising exhibitions across various States. However, in 2015, the ministry suddenly stopped funding ARUNIM.

“It came as a shock for us. ARUNIM had benefited us a lot. It not only linked us with the markets but also connected us with artisans of other areas in the country,” says Tariq.

New initiatives

In 2017, the brothers got lucky. Commitment to Kashmir (C2K), a Delhi-based charitable trust that works for the overall development of craftspeople — chiselling their skills, providing them with new designs and connecting them with markets — chose Mir brothers’ Special Hands of Kashmir for their 2017-18 projects. “They provide us new market-oriented designs and mentor us in upskilling our craft,” says Tariq, full of hope for the future.

Devika Krishnan, a designer at C2K, believes the three brothers will be able to carve a niche for themselves as they work diligently in the face of all odds.

“ I am highly satisfied with their work and I hope their products receive a good response from the market” she says.

The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist

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