All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association

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All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association http://www.aiacaonline.org/craftmark-products.asp?links=craftm5

The handloom and handicraft sector represent an important source of livelihood in India, especially in rural areas. After agriculture, handicrafts is the second largest employer in rural India, with many agricultural communities depending on it as secondary form of income generation during times of drought, lean harvests and famines. Despite a significant contribution to the national GDP and expor

t earning, little effort has been made to enhance the incomes of craftworkers at a macro level. AIACA implements a range of initiatives like:
Policy Advocacy and Research
AIACA has been working consistently on creating a national policy research and advocacy network for the handloom and handicrafts sectors. Dearth of organized data, unavailability of information and the unorganized nature of the sector prevent voices of change from effectively organizing themselves. Hence, in the last few years AIACA has commissioned various studies like Access to Credit for Craftworkers, Handloom Cooperative Reform, Yarn Supply, Baseline study on Environment, Occupational Health and Safety issues in the crafts sector etc. Various national level workshops and consultations are also organized to engage various stakeholders like the government, private business and grassroot level NGO's. Craftmark
Liberalization of the Indian economy has created many threats and opportunities for the Indian crafts sector. While there is a great demand for handicrafts in India and abroad, there is also fierce competition from low cost machine made products impersonating as handicrafts. The Craftmark initiative is an effort by AIACA to help denote genuine Indian handicrafts, develop sector-wide minimum standards and norms for labeling a product as a handicraft product, and increase consumer awareness of distinct handicraft traditions. Craftmark authenticates craft processes to be handmade and provides the use of the Craftmark trademark to craft producers and retailers post verification of their craft processes.

With EU SWITCH Asia project AIACA is able to establish demonstration, 03 ETPs (Effluent Treatment Plant) at Lunkaransar ...
01/02/2013

With EU SWITCH Asia project AIACA is able to establish demonstration, 03 ETPs (Effluent Treatment Plant) at Lunkaransar (Bikaner), Bhuj (with Khamir CRC - www.khamir.org) and in Balotra, (Barmer).

Please visit... http://youtu.be/Ky6Z874gV6A
07/09/2012

Please visit... http://youtu.be/Ky6Z874gV6A

The videos consist of two (2) 10-minute films, one focusing on the block-printing and dying clusters in Bagru and Sanganer, Rajasthan and the second focusing...

please visit www.aiacaonline.org
28/06/2012

please visit www.aiacaonline.org

the all india artisans and craftworkers welfare association (aiaca) is a membership-based apex body for the handloom and handicraft sectors.

17/05/2012

The idea for forming an apex body for the craft industry emerged out of various discussions between some of the current members of AIACA's board, especially William Bissell, the Managing Director of FabIndia and Laila Tyabji, the Chairperson of Dastkar.

While there were many individuals and organizations in the sector engaging with the government on various issues like the need to reform unclear policies, tax regulations with respect to starting and running a crafts-based business, lack of access to credit and social security services for craftworkers and various other issues, there was no impact due to the isolated nature of these attempts. The crafts sector is the second largest employer in the country after agriculture, yet the government gave it a low priority vis-à-vis other sectors in policy-making due to their unorganized nature and the fact that most craftworkers operated in the informal sector. The rapidly changing economic scenario within India was creating new threats and opportunities for the sector and these developments required pro-active research to support policy-making to enable craftworkers to deal with the threats and to take advantage of domestic market opportunities created by economic and trade liberalization.

To address these concerns there was a clear need for a membership-based apex body that would represent craftworkers at the national level, serving to help them articulate their needs and advocate for favorable policies for the sector. This body would start by bringing together private businesses, non-profit organizations and cooperatives working in the crafts sector since all of them were affected by the lack of effective policies for the sector.

Within this context, the All India Artisans and Craftworkers Welfare Association (AIACA) started functioning in March 2003 as an informal association of Craft NGOs and producer organizations spread throughout India. After operating as an informal association for one year, AIACA was formally registered under the Societies Registration Act on 30th of January, 2004.

However, AIACA’s work in the initial years saw that providing policy inputs was not adequate as the need for many producer groups was first access to markets and to technical inputs. Hence, the focus of AIACA's work expanded to create programs and platforms that would assist craft producers to showcase their products and become commercially sustainable organizations.

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