The impact of Corona pandemic became visible in Kachchh from the end of February 2020. Tourism was seriously hit as tours got cancelled and this impacted the artisans too. The situation aggravated further by mid-March as local travel was also affected. Many buyers and designers cancelled their visits. Craft organisations active in the area minimised their field visits.

The movement of finished goods was halted and many of them faced difficulty in shipping their completed orders. Most of the manufacturers were forced to stop production and most buyers cancelled the orders once the countrywide lockdown was announced on March 24, 2020.

The craft sector is the largest employer after agriculture in India. The artisan’s way of life is a critical lesson on sustainability and prudent usage of resources. The global pandemic is a serious challenge for artisans as the market has dried up, there is slow movement of goods, change in priority of customers, and low demand. This is severely impacting crafts and craft production. The export markets are going to be down and there will be no tourism at least till next year. Similarly, there will be challenges related to supply of raw materials and finished goods.

However, crafts and artisan groups connected to local or urban markets are going to recover faster. This also brings in new direction towards local markets and change in form of design, product and markets to make it more suitable to the local markets. Creating sustainable markets to provide continuous livelihood to the artisans is going to remain a key challenge and therefore an area of action for all of us. The artisans are also encouraged to explore new mediums of online sale, video conferencing etc to reposition their crafts in new market scenarios. The main problem at present is the market and availability of raw materials. The physical markets are non-existent, so they need to shift to online marketplaces, which is difficult for an unorganised sector.

Kachchh, commonly known as Kutch and the largest district in the country, is a potpourri of crafts and culture witness as it has been to migrations from Rajasthan, Sindh, Afghanistan and Iran. Textile crafts contribute almost 85 per cent in total revenues of craft production. As mentioned earlier, most of the artisans had to stop work because of cancelled or halted orders, no material supply and uncertainty in the markets. A craft like rogan, which is completely dependent on tourism, was severely impacted. Ancillary workers dependent on these crafts like the bandhej artisans were perhaps the most affected as they were not getting work from the entrepreneurs. Similarly, block makers, printing artisans etc are still without work and regular payments.

Some artisans associated with block printing and handloom weaving managed to continue work at a slow pace till the raw materials and dyes were available.

Raw material supply chains are not in place now and will continue to be disrupted for the next few months as the power loom centres across India are facing issues of labour. This will also affect the textile crafts of Kachchh. Textile artisans who are dependent on exhibitions, craft fairs and tourist markets will have to wait for a long time as compared to those dependent on the urban markets in the metros and tier two cities.

The products are sold in urban cities. 

The average monthly income of the embroidery artisan is between ₹10,000 to ₹15,000. Hand spinners earn between ₹1,000 to ₹5,000.