Several thousands of women living in different parts of Aligarh district, both rural and urban, are estimated to be involved in phool patti work. Darting their needles back and forth several hours a day they stitch each leaf attentively till the patters appear, part of the tracery of lotus, kairi and arabesques. This picture of the phool-patti artisans dates from my memories of my mother’s artisan group over 25 years ago. These were young women, mostly wearing veils or ‘burkhas’. They always came in small groups and would spent many hours in the workroom with my mother. They learned and helped to trace the designs on the material and took them home to develop the embroidery. To learn more about the current phool-patti karigars, I travelled to Aligarh once again in 2008. Some friends from my medical school took an interest and introduced me to Aligarh’s phool-patti entrepreneurs and artisans. They also helped me collect my mother’s pieces from family and friends from the years gone by.
During this visit to Aligarh, I was introduced to Kaneez Fatima who I was told was an accomplished phool-patti artisan during her youth. Her two daughters are currently involved in this craft. Kaneez now works as a cook since her eyesight and household responsibilities do not allow her to give time to this craft. I am pleasantly surprised when Kaneez mentions that she remembers working with Saleha Khan as a young woman during the 1980s, since I did not expect to meet any artisan from that period. Her daughter, Nargis, is wearing a phool-patti design that she embroidered herself. Her sister though has learned other aspects of the work also beyond embroidery such as developing and tracing designs and facilitating as sub-contractor. She takes material for embroidery from city entrepreneurs to rural women in their homes. It is interesting to learn of her perspective on the current trends and evolvement of the appliqué style. According to Nargis, larger appliqué floral designs as also the white on white tops worn over jeans are the current popular trend in phool-patti. She draws a picture of one of her favorite designs on my notebook. Nargis has received no formal design training, she studied up till 8th grade at the local union school and dropped-out when she got married.
Embroidering lives: An introductory profile
My interviews at Aligarh clearly indicate that most of the women karigars (artisans) are illiterate or have received minimal schooling. Mohamed Athar, who runs Shagufta boutique, which markets phool-patti creations in Aligarh, reports working with an artisan group of over a hundred women. He informs that the women in the group come from the poorest and backward communities in rural areas of Aligarh and are mostly illiterate. The women and girls, many of them from Muslim families, have learned the craft in their households or from female relatives and friends. Many women embroider phool-patti on their own garments and wear it regularly themselves. They also prepare their own phool-patti dowry goods and wedding paraphernalia with the designs of their choice. In the Waheed Nagar neighborhood of Aligarh, about three hundred women are estimated to be involved in phool-patti embroidery. Other areas in Aligarh where phool-patti artisans reside include Bhamola, Nagla, Jamalpur, Sikandra Rao, Sahawar, Zohra Bagh and Kasganj. It is also interesting to note that approximately 80 percent of the current karigars are unmarried. The married ones do this work mostly when their children are at their school. There is also no respite from household, child rearing and family chores. Also, in many cases, there are no alternative income generation opportunities for them.
Many women work in small spaces with limited light. Nevertheless, the women and girls welcome the opportunity since it provides income and work in the privacy of the home and at their own time. The sub-contractors or middle persons assign and facilitate delivery of the embroidery to and from the artisans to the city entrepreneurs and this enables them to work in the privacy of their homes. However, the women artisans’ respond that they do not want their daughters to do this work and would like quality education opportunities for them. Though, with changing times, the ladies in burkhas, who were not allowed to move freely in their own neighbourhood at one time, are now traveling across the city, some even on bikes. There is a limited research on phool-patti artisans and a detailed ethnographic study of phool-patti karigars is beyond the scope of this publication. However, it is hoped that this would spark interest among researchers and policy makers for a methodological study to understand more about the concealed productive world of rural phool-patti karigars.
Phool-Patti: Labour and economics
Most women are able, on an average, to devote about 3 to 4 hours per day to this work. Piece wages are paid for this hand labour. It takes an artisan about ten to fifteen days to make one sari for which the average renumeration is rupees 300 per sari. A kurta and dupatta ensemble can be completed approximately in a week. The payment for the embroidery on these varies with the amount and type of work but averages around rupees 200 per garment. The rates vary with the type, extent, fabric and quality of embroidery on each piece. Some entrepreneurs reported individual artisans being able to earn up to rupees 2500 a month and have moved towards financial independence. The women are aware that phool-patti is sold at expensive prices at exhibitions in metropolitan cities of Delhi and Mumbai. However, sporadic workflow, competition of limited work, incomplete information on rights and paucity of skills for negotiation has prevented setting off labour and wage standards for the phool-patti karigars in Aligarh. Also perhaps, as with other women’s work issues, this work by the artisan women and girls is regarded as a leisure time activity and not worthy of serious attention or wage negotiation.
The women informed that their husbands usually had no problem with this activity since it was done at home and also brought in financial contribution to the family income. The income from phool-patti also contributed to the preparation of the girls’ marriage and dowry. However, needless to say, this is the additional burden of work besides that of regular housework and childcare. Phool-patti has remained the domain of women and girls from embroiderers to entrepreneurs and designers. However, men have been reported to contribute in different ways too. Some are reported to help their artisan wives with activities such as with cutting of the material into small pieces to be folded into the patti-shape. Men sometimes partner with their designer/artisan wives, as well as individually manage and market the phool-patti business enterprise.
Policy and Programmes: A glimpse
The Center of Adult Education at the Aligarh Muslim University runs a training programme for patti workers. The programme is for underprivileged women and provided free of charge. Women are trained in the art of designing, record keeping, sales and marketing phool-patti. The course, of one to three months duration, is run in the community to enable easy participation. The Centre is also working on innovations in this craft such as fusion of phool-patti work and block printing. Skills-building is an entry point for this adult education programme and different learners self-help groups are formed and facilitated. It seems, however, that the women are not too interested in the education component. Needless to say, the focus of the poor women is primarily on income generation.
There is need to explore opportunities and appropriate strategies for artisan empowerment. It will be useful to evaluate the current programme strategies for phool patti artisans and lessons learned from implementation and facilitate scale-up of the initiatives. This is challenging since the sector is unorganized. The improvement of the conditions of livelihood of the unorganized sector workers depends not only on their own agency but also on a policy and a regulatory framework as well as programmes which create the conditions, which allow them to expand their livelihoods. The main responsibility for creating such conditions rests with the State17. There is need to enhance awareness and information on the existing context of the regulation of conditions of the unorganized sector in India, particularly among rural workers and artisans. Also information on the state assisted and/or promoted schemes for social security for workers in the informal sector needs to be made known to increase their coverage, which is reported to be only about 6 percent.
There continues to be a paucity of research and studies on the phool-patti artisans, their socio-economic and training needs and social security arrangements. Examples of organization of women workers in other sectors and in various parts of India, such as SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association), would be very useful to examine for possible adaptation, including of formation of cooperatives of karigars, at Aligarh. This could facilitate access to social security arrangements such as non-profit insurance schemes16 (covering sickness, maternity, loss of assets, among others) and enable the women to lead more dignified lives.
