Abstract:
Chikankari is a famous craft of embroidery from the Awadh region in the state of
Uttar Pradesh. This traditional embroidery is a centuries-old art form which is still being
practised and is trending in the fashion industry. But this traditional art form also has a
dark side of the bad socio-economic conditions of the artisans, making them
struggle even to survive. On the one hand, Chikan products have a very high market
value having consumers all over the world and on the other hand, the artisans are
struggling. The profit being made from the product is not benefiting the artisans. So
there is a huge gap between the consumer and artisans which is resulting in the bad
socio-economic conditions of them. These bad socio-economic conditions are
forcing them to stop practising this centuries-old art form and to not let their children
enter in the field. This is a great threat to the existence of the craft itself. The main
reason behind this gap is the presence of middlemen in the process. The
unstructured practicing has lead this craft and the artisans to depend on
middlemen. The whole process of chikankari has around 7-8 steps which involve
different stakeholders. In the current system after every step the product comes
back to the middleman and then he/she passes it to the other. That’s how they
create a monopoly and make the maximum profit out of it.
So, the intent of this project will be to propose a suitable built infrastructure for the
cluster in order to organise the industry and to integrate all the stakeholders in the
process of Chikankari under one roof. This will eventually eliminate the role of
middlemen and bring the consumers-artisans closer to each other, resulting in better
socio-economic condition of artisans.
