One District One Product Scheme has transformed the cottage industry in UP, while it languishes in Pakistan

Quasar Jahan, 28, throws a glance at the design of foliage and starts embroidery, humming a Hindi movie song that talks about a better future. She is part of a group of women who are busy with embroidery work. She looks around and says: “Everyone here is giving shape to their future through these designs.”

Anum, 26, sitting near Quasar, responds to her with a smile radiating the courtyard with positivity. Both are among thousands of women who work as ‘chikankari’ artisans in Lucknow, who embroider intricate designs on clothes that are much in demand in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and even in Europe and the US.

Quasar has a traumatic past, which she wants to forget. Married at the age of 15, she was divorced when she was 22, while she was a mother of two children – a son aged five years old and a daughter, who was three years old. Quasar never went to a school. She was pushed into an early marriage, and then had to go through the heartbreak of a broken relationship. She took up chikankari to support herself and her children. She learned the centuries-old art of embroidery and with practice and perseverance, she now works magic with her nimble fingers.

Chikan embroidery is not new for Quasar as she has seen women at different centres, which could even be the courtyard of a house, where women sit down to embroider after finishing their chores. She learned the artwork painstakingly and started working with the ladies. Initially, she earned Rs 100-125 per day after almost 8-10 hours of work.

As per the government record, chikan embroidery provides employment to over 350,000 artisans, mostly Muslim women, around Lucknow. Besides, close to a million people are associated with the chikan trade, as raw material suppliers, contractors, manufacturers and retailers.

“Poverty liberated me. It forced me to come out of the confines of the four walls of my house to earn money. This gave me confidence and I used my earnings to educate my son and daughter,” said Shahida Khatoon, another chikankari artisan.

The transformation in her life came in 2017 when the chikan embroidery work was adopted by the provincial government of Uttar Pradesh under the ‘One District One Product (ODOP)’ Scheme, which aims to preserve, develop and boost the demand of local arts and crafts.

Quasar and women like her have now found a market and even have learned new words like “exhibition” and “boutique”– and now they know their chikan embroidery is much in demand. Last week she went to Pune, a city in western India, and returned home earning a profit of Rs 27,000.

Almost at the same time, Seema Babar, an embroidery artisan in the Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan, rues that despite getting appreciation for training illiterate women in embroidery there is no government support. “Different government departments have appreciated our efforts in imparting vocational training to women but are reluctant in releasing funds,” she said.

Seema, an Islamic scholar, had started a skill training centre in the verandah of her house. They impart training in tailoring and embroidery. She used this centre to provide employment to women.

“Most of these women are illiterate housewives. Some of them have diplomas (in embroidery) from government centres. Still, they come here because they do not have employment opportunities in those centres,” Seema said.

The centre takes tailoring and embroidery orders from garment shops. These women complete the orders and this way they earn some money. “Had the government supported us, we would have done better. What we need is cheap raw materials and government help in finding buyers. It is a big struggle to keep this trade afloat without any support,” she said.

Mehreen, another artisan, has been in this trade for the last four years. Her intricate designs have won laurels across Pakistan. “People like my embroidery and I am getting orders from people. Now, I am planning to export readymade garments to the Middle East and Europe. The problem is I do not have a space where I can make women sit and work for me. I have hired eight women who work from their homes. I get orders and pass it on to these women. Once I complete the order, I get money. The profit margin is very less as the middleman takes the major portion of the profit,” she said.

She recounts that once a non-governmental organisation (NGO) approached her with the proposal that it would finance and provide the raw materials but the profit would be shared. She rejected the offer.

“We are facing a severe challenge in the form of high input costs, bad transportation, and unavailability of raw material, frequent power outages, and lack of skilled workers. No government institution extends a helping hand,” Mehreen said.

Nazeer Ahmad Ansari who runs his power loom in Tando Adam Khan in Sindh province of Pakistan, is now thinking of closing down his shop because of high input costs and load shedding.

The attitude of the governments of the two countries – India and Pakistan – reflects their approach. On the one hand, the Indian government is alive to the problems of the people involved in small-scale industries and has formulated policies, on the other, the government in Pakistan is still grappling with the issue and it still uses Small and Household Manufacturing Industries (SHMIs) census of 2015 to formulate its cottage industry.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in Pakistan in its report says that cottage and small-scale industries have a great scope in Pakistan. It generates employment for the nation and improves the balance of trade in the country and employs about 81 per cent of the total labour force.

Government officials vouch that the cottage industry has a job creation potential which in turn can help in the reduction of poverty, but no government in Pakistan has taken this sector seriously. “The negligence is evident from the fact that Pakistan still uses the census of 2015,” said an official.Uttar Pradesh is home to 230 million people, equivalent to that of Pakistan. Under this ODOP scheme, Itra (perfume) of Kannauj, carpets of Bhadohi, brassware of Moradabad, Kala Namak rice from Kushinagar, are being taken to the global market.

“More than 20 million ODOP products worth $12.19 billion have been sold in 2020-21 on the Flipkart portal which has helped artisans of UP in a big way,” Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.

In ODOP more than 10 lakh beneficiaries were given loans of about Rs 30,000 crore (US dollars 368.45 billion) through four online fairs.

Quasar is one of the beneficiaries of the ODOP scheme. “Initially, I did not have funds. The loan provided by the government helped me purchase raw materials. The government initiative also helped me find a market. Now, I can say with pride that I too am an entrepreneur who has a business of my own,” she says.

(Biswajeet Banerjee is based in Lucknow and Tahir Amin in Islamabad)