Sajad
Ahmed, a handsome young weaver from Kanihama, West Kashmir valley, is one of (almost
extinct) weaver class who make Jamawar shawls. Jamawar shawls are rare shawl
made in Kashmir. It is still made with Kani (weaving stick). For a single weft
sometimes more than 50 kani is used. Such intricate is the design that it takes
the entire day to weave just one inch in
a 48-inch width!! The fine art renders it difficult to know the back and front
side of the shawl.
But all is not well with Jamawar and for that matter many
crafts of our country. Our discussion with Sajad brought us to the ground
realities of such a heritage. Now a day’s lots of Jamawar shawls are available
in market. But the lamenting fact is not the flood of shawls, but claiming by
almost all the manufacturer as their product being original and authentic.
The
Kashmiri Jamawar has as many as 250 colors. But due to lack of the artistic
appreciation many fake Jamawar coming from the power looms are also sold as Jamawar.
This is very frustrating to those handloom weavers who fears for their
tradition and livelihood. Not only this, the Pashmina wool used in Jamwar is
also replaced with Chinese wool and brought into the market as Jamawar. Such scenario calls for the action, the protection
and more important promotion of Jamawar
as only hand made and not the machine made shawls
The idea
of Geographical Indications thus brings a ray of hope for millions of such
crafters.
One of
the best and most accepted agreements took place in Uruguay Round of WTO, 1994,
was the introduction of Geographical Indications, GI in short.
The term
Geographical Indication (GI) is a new term though the concept is pretty
old. By its definition, a Geographical
Indication is a name, could be sign, used in a product that corresponds to a
specific territory or origin. Under GI, a product and its attributes are linked
to a specific region. For example, Champagne
from Champagne district of France, Scotch whisky from Scotland, “FLORIDA” for
Oranges, “IDAHO” for Potatoes, “VIDALIA” for Onions, “WASHINGTON STATES” for
apples, Bukhara Carpets, Switch Watches etc. Geographical Indication serves
the same function as trademarks,
because they identify the source,
guarantees the quality and valuable business interest.
Any noun
or adjective (need not necessarily be a
geographic name) that designates geographical location would tend to be
regarded by buyers as descriptive of the geographical location of origin of
goods.
Backdrop and Important Provisions
Though
GI is much recent terms, came in existence after the Uruguay Round of WTO, 1994,
yet such type of industrial practice is found at least since the beginning of
19th century. The concept of “Appellation of Origin (AOA)”, ”Indication
of Source (IOS)”, ”Designations of Origin ”, “Protected Geographical Indications”
“Indications of Geographical Origin (IGO)” are closely related concepts since
pre-industrial times.
However these different related concepts fell short of
ever changing business scenarios and also fail to protect the interest of the
producer group. The key socio-economic issues related to GI (more relevant to
developing countries) like misappropriations, protecting traditional knowledge,
improving market access, protection of reputations etc, can’t all be addressed
with treaties or acts existed prior to 1994.
TRIPS Agreement incorporates provisions
for protection of GIs in three articles:
• Article
22 contains a definition of GIs and sets out the general standards of protection
that must be available to all GIs;
• Article
23 deals with the additional protection granted to GIs for wines and spirits;
and
• Article
24 lays out certain exceptions and also creates room for future negotiations
in GIs.
Socio Economic Implications
GIs can be granted to an individual, a family, a
partnership, a corporation, a voluntary association etc or any organization or authority
established by or under any law for the time being in force representing the
interest of the producers of the concerned goods.
It
protects and benefits the traditions at the same time providing allowance for
its evolution over the period of time. Indian Geographical Indications protect
the product for an initial 10 year period with subsequent increase of 10 year
term after the expiration. However it ceases to be in force if the registration
is not done with 6 months of the expiration tenure.
Empirical
evidence suggests that people in European countries are willing to spend 10%
premium if the source of the product (handloom, handicraft, agricultural goods
etc) is guaranteed by the sellers. This is remarkable generosity on the part of
the folks.
Another
eye opening fact is that more Darjeeling Tea or Antiguan Coffee is sold than
produced!!!. The above facts definitely indicate that there is a market for genuine fabric and products.
Promotion
of such genuine products having certain characteristics could be of
considerable importance for the rural economy, in particular to less-advantageous
and remote areas, at least by two ways:
- Premium price of the protected products, and
- Barriers for producers who spoof and fake the items as original.
GI,
thus, allows the genuine folks to thrive on their creations and indigenous skills.
-- Tuscan Olive Oil from Italy is registering
premium sales ever since it registered in the year 1998.
-- Bordeaux wine with ‘Pomerol’ designations
commanded a premium $15 per bottle.
There
are many such cases. However the fact that premium sales actually benefit the
original producer group is something which is heavily dependent on the
effective enforcement of these laws.
Indian GI Scenario
It is
heartening to know that unlike other 6 Trade Related Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of WTO, GI is received favourably by Indian and other
developing countries.
In India 'The Geographical Indications
of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999' (GI Act) was enacted in
compliance with India's obligations under TRIPS at the WTO. The Geographical Indications
of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 (Act 48 of 1999) came into
force with effect from 15 September 2003.
The Indian GI Act defines “Geographical Indications in relation to goods
as an indication which identifies such goods as agricultural goods, natural
goods or manufactured goods as originating, or manufactured in the territory of
a country or a region or a locality in that territory where a given quality,
reputation or other characteristics of such goods is essentially attributable
to its geographical origin and in the case of manufactured goods where one of
the activities of either the production or of processing or preparation of the
goods concerned takes place in such territory, region or locality, as the case
may be.” (Source GI Registry Office,
Chennai, India)
The Indian Act serves three key
objectives:
n Protect the interest of GI user
groups and add prosperity to these goods
n Protect the consumer from
deception
n Promote good bearing GI marks in
international market.
Darjeeling
Tea is the first product protected under GI. The need was felt when it was
discovered that more Darjeeling Tea was being sold in the international market
than produced. The Tea Board of India initiated the process and it was done
quickly and smoothly because of timely intervention.
A striking feature of Indian GIs is the variety of
product categories to which they belong. These include textiles, handicrafts,paintings, agricultural products, horticultural products, beverages, among
others. This is in sharp contrast with the European scenario, where GIs
predominantly relate to wines and spirits, or other food and agricultural
products
Till
2010, 120 numbers of products were able to bag the GI tags. Though the study
indicates that there are at least 1500 products which have the potential to get
registered as GIs
India’s famous GIs
Basmati rice Darjeeling tea Assam tea
Bengal Cotton Alphonso Mangoes Pochampalli Ikat, tie dye
Chanderi silk Hyderabad pearls Kerala
Nendran bananas
Jaipur silver jewellery Nilgiri
tea Coorg coffee
Mysore sandalproducts Mysore Silk Malabar pepper
Kancheepuram silks Lonawala chikis Nilgiri tea
Significance for Folksmarket.com
The
presence of laws like GI is also a bright hope for us at Folksmarket.com. One
of our well wisher and buyer stated that Folksmarket.com is by the folks, for the folks and of the folks.
The vision of the Folksmarket.com can not be summarized more beautiful than
this. We have begun our journey to preserve these rich traditions of the
crafters and weavers. We must strive for more and more skills to be protected
by the GI. The GI, definitely, has given the folks a reason to celebrate.
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