Project Code: ERSMWB10022R

By Anirban Saha (PGP-09-100), Ankur Rakshit (PGP-09-102)

Executive Summary
Economic Rural Development Society (ERDS) is a non-profit organization providing
vocational training for handicraft industry, promoting microfinance through SHG and
supporting child education program across the different regions of rural Bengal. Gazole is a
small town in the district Malda of West Bengal comprising of 41 villages comprising mostly
of tribal people earning livelihood on bamboo-craft industry, daily laborer and animal
husbandry. ERDS has been working at Gazole since 1983.
The Problem
2 years back ERDS in collaboration with NABARD had given a 30 day training to more than
100 bamboo artisans to rejuvenate the sagging bamboo-craft industry. But this training has
not been effective in improving their livelihood as the training was not comprehensive and
artists did not have a direct channel in selling the handicraft items.
The Objective
We did a comprehensive research to identify the core problems in Gazole bamboo craft
cluster and provide a comprehensive solution to (ERDS) about how to solve those problems,
enhance the fine bamboo craft business, provide and effective distribution channel and
improve the lives of more than four hundred local bamboo craft artisans.
The Opportunity

The Research
A study was conducted by us across 15 villages comprising of artisans who took training and
who had not conducted any training in equal proportion. We got perspective of different
artists and their family members ,analyzed their product portfolio .We consulted expert
artisan in Gazole with presidential award to get the insights in handicraft business. Extensive
research was done on how to procure bamboo effectively from different suppliers in Gazole.
Comprehensive interviews were conducted on government officials across Malda from DIC
and state handicraft commission of West Bengal to understand the government offerings and
incentives in the handicraft sector .We then contacted different government and privately
owned retail shops dealing with bamboo craft items .We partnered with state handicraft
marketing agency Manjusha to find out the issues with respect to quality, durability and
design of the bamboo-craft items. We then looked into the micro-credit agency of ERDS to
find out the how its operations can be utilized to help the artisans .Finally we conducted a
brainstorming session with ERDS officials and expert artisans.
The Findings
• The training was not effective due to lack of experienced trainer, wrong selection of
trainees ,short duration and ineffective training course.
• The fine crafts making is a time consuming job and needs some good amount of
capital.
• Fine crafts don’t have any demand in local market; those are sold through seasonal
fairs.
• The artisans lack professional attitude and there is no adherence to quality which is
very important.
• There exists internal rivalry among the artisans , lack of education fuels it a lot. There
is no diversity in terms of designs and products.
• The micro-credit scheme is not used effectively to fund the initial capital of the
artisans.
• There is no appropriate distribution channel to cater to the different markets in the
urban India as well as export opportunities.
 Project Code: ERSMWB10022R
By Anirban Saha (PGP-09-100), Ankur Rakshit (PGP-09-102)
• The several welfare schemes offered by government is not used appropriately due lack
of synergy between ERDS and government agencies.
The Conclusions
• Artisans need to work together and move forward from their traditional way of work.

• The problems in earlier trainings organized by ERDS were lack of experienced trainer
and wrong selection of trainees.

• ERDS’s Micro credit scheme needs a geographical expansion.

• There is a need of a sustainable distribution channel.

• Depending upon the skill sets the bamboo craft artisans can be classified into three
categories: Naives with bamboo crafts background in family, Semi-experts and
Experts.

• The main deficiencies these artisans have are addiction to liquor and lack of vision
about their prospects.

• A Public private partnership has to be developed comprising ERDS, Nabard and DIC
to leverage maximum effectiveness of the bamboo craft industry

Recommendations:

• A comprehensive business model on how ERDS can work in long run along with
government and different funding agencies to uplift the bamboo-craft industry

• Technical trainings for the artisans

o For experts: Quality Enhancement Training for eight weeks

o For Semi Experts: Design Development Workshop for fifteen days followed
by Quality Enhancement Training
o For Naives: Full Scale Training for five months

• Behavioural Training that should be inherent in each technical training

o More emphasis on group work.

o Use of pictures and videos of different community works.

o Best performer awards and provisions for entertainment.

• Post training follow up and distribution channel building

• Community centre building

 Project Code: ERSMWB10022R
By Anirban Saha (PGP-09-100), Ankur Rakshit (PGP-09-102)