Geographical Indications and Handloom and Handicrafts

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 19^th 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

Banarasi silks             Pashmina shawls           Kashmir carpets

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

Coir products from Kerala    Cardamom from Kerala

Nagpuroranges       Phulkari embroidery work  Aranmula mirrors

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.

Marble-ous World, Indian Marble Handicraft items at Folksmarket.com

Marble is the precious metamorphic stone. Brilliance lies in its texture, its color and above all, if I may say so, its rarity. We might see various stones, red, black etc but finding marble is as rare as finding diamond or say, opium. For folks like us, seeing marble is a beautiful experience as we have never been in the company of this stone. Now think of the place wheremarble is Everywhere, literally!! The mountains made up of the marble, the field of the marble, sitting slabs made of the marbles and what more, even the speed breaker is made of the marble!!...Looks like some fairy tale, no?

Even better, to highlight the glory of such beautiful place is the holy river Narmada. The pious river Narmada is the only river flowing from East to west, covering 750kms, to meet Arabian Sea in the state of Gujrat. 

Bhedaghat, in Jabalpur is one such place. 

The splashing water of river Narmada seems to transfer all its beauty in its bank here. Like the rift valley the Narmada flows between the slabs of the mountain. The water so clear that the river bed is easily visible if one tries to see it closely or dive in. It’s a hub spot for thousands of tourist who are mesmerized by the serene marvel of Bhedaghat. The team of Folksmarket was simply awestruck as soon as we reach in the company of the marble and of those folks who play with these stones and creates marble decorative and useful items again and again.

Yes we are coming to these artisans, these folks who still celebrate their skills, their creations and often instead of idol worshipping (which they are deft enough to create as and when they feel like!!!) they worship the nature. This is the tradition. 

We were amazed when we saw hundreds of the beautiful items sculpted by these artisans.

Marble glasses, marble lamps, marble chess, marble bangles, marble swans, etc. Above all the most amazing was the marble telephone!!. Marble working telephone!! Just imagine how beautiful a glittering marble telephone will look in the drawing room irrespective of the theme of the drawing rooms.

List is endless and every item that we have collected is tempting. Even something as monotonous as small glass for drinks is alluring without bounds. Just check more in our website www.folksmarket.com

Another hallmark of this place is the marble painting. No, no, we are not talking about the rock painting. Almost all the paintings that you will see there are the same painting of Bhedaghat. The river Narmada with all its glory is flowing from the rift valley made of marble. Folks have imagined different times for this theme. Sunrise, sunsets, full moon, half moon, you name it and they have visualized and painted them all. Anyone will at once recognize these paintings as from this place. In a way these are signaturepaintings of Bhedaghat. You may see all these paintings exclusively in www.folksmarket.com

Visiting those sites where these artisans and folks work looks like someone is working with lime stone. The marbles are so whitey!!  These folks are working since ages and the same skill is passing on from generation to generation. We must preserve this. After all this is the motto of the company. The sculptors with chisel and hammer break all the stone into its desired length after measuring its softness. Most of the time its their age old wisdom and experience of creations that measures the softness and hardness of the stone.  Covering their head and nose these artisans often laments about the termination of the marble mining because of which procuring the stones is getting difficult day by day. Innocently these folks have asked us to highlight this point.

One may ponder over whether to support mining that is creating havoc on the environment or not. Not supporting the mining is taking a toll over these poor folks. We may logic it out for the mass benefit. But what about the preservation of the age old tradition? Unfortunately these folks have to pay the price of that mistakes which they have never committed. 

These artisans never pollute the water and never mine the mountains, rather than just take some pieces from here and there which never affects the balance of nature. 

Anyway, there are still some eye opening and breathtaking moments for us that has given our folks the joy. Time to relish our beautiful experience and enjoying the wonderful creations of these folks.

See ya