While we have moved away from the license raj of times past to a market based economy, it is becoming depressingly clear that the vast majority of Indians view the market based economy as a different methodology to be used by central planners. Most people still feel that it is necessary for the government to intervene and plan the economy for the well being of the country. If the government has to think hard and act to %u201Cprotect%u201D every trade and industry in the country, then it needs to have awfully bringht people and it needs to be really big, afterall, silk is just one of the millions of products india produces. But does the government really need to do that?
Charles Wheelan in the book %u201CNaked Economics%u201D asks the poses the same question differently by asking %u201CWho feeds Paris?%u201D. There are millions of people living in Paris and they need to eat three times a day. It has to be a daunting task for any government to make sure that they get to eat what they want. Yet the French government is not involved in this process. No goverment beareaucrat is taking orders from Frenchmen every day and orders the right amount of fruits, vegetables and meat for them. In spite of very little government involvement, Wheelan says, %u201C%u2026somehow the right amount of fresh tuna meks its way from a fishing fleet in the south pacific to a restaurant on the Rue de Rivoli. A neighborhood fruit vendor has exactly what his customers want every morning-from cofee to fresh papayas-even though those products may come from ten and fifteen different countries%u201D.
If millions of people can accomplish the awfully important task of feeding themselves without the government getting involved, then why should the government get involved in more mundane tasks such as regulating and %u201Cprotecting%u201D this or that trade? We dont the government to plan our economy like it used to do during the licence raj, nor do we need it to %u201Cfine-tune%u201D it now, using tariffs and import quotas and so on. The governments needs to just let them be! Laissez faire.
While we have moved away from the license raj of times past to a market based economy, it is becoming depressingly clear that the vast majority of Indians view the market based economy as a different methodology to be used by central planners. Most people still feel that it is necessary for the government to intervene and plan the economy for the well being of the country. If the government has to think hard and act to %u201Cprotect%u201D every trade and industry in the country, then it needs to have awfully bringht people and it needs to be really big, afterall, silk is just one of the millions of products india produces. But does the government really need to do that?
Charles Wheelan in the book %u201CNaked Economics%u201D asks the poses the same question differently by asking %u201CWho feeds Paris?%u201D. There are millions of people living in Paris and they need to eat three times a day. It has to be a daunting task for any government to make sure that they get to eat what they want. Yet the French government is not involved in this process. No goverment beareaucrat is taking orders from Frenchmen every day and orders the right amount of fruits, vegetables and meat for them. In spite of very little government involvement, Wheelan says, %u201C%u2026somehow the right amount of fresh tuna meks its way from a fishing fleet in the south pacific to a restaurant on the Rue de Rivoli. A neighborhood fruit vendor has exactly what his customers want every morning-from cofee to fresh papayas-even though those products may come from ten and fifteen different countries%u201D.
If millions of people can accomplish the awfully important task of feeding themselves without the government getting involved, then why should the government get involved in more mundane tasks such as regulating and %u201Cprotecting%u201D this or that trade? We dont the government to plan our economy like it used to do during the licence raj, nor do we need it to %u201Cfine-tune%u201D it now, using tariffs and import quotas and so on. The governments needs to just let them be! Laissez faire.
RE:RE:Let them be!
by Sid on Apr 23, 2007 12:03 AM
I agree with your comments. Just to elaborate on them: 1) Indian economy is still in transition from it's socialist roots to capitalist philosophy. For about 40-50 years, we have been driven by subsidy-based, closed economy, thereby limiting competition and disincentivizing innovation. 2) In a capitilistic society, Government should limit it's role to a large extent as a regulatory body. It should let the market forces play out but should promote innovation and entrepreneurship. 3) It is clear from the article that these weavers suffer as much from the lack of market access as such from the Chinese competition. Consumers would be willing to pay that much more if the "Benares" brand is promoted appropriately (perhaps more as a luxury good). 4) In terms of access to market, the intermediaries have to be cut, the supply-chain made more efficient, and innovative practices encourages. This can be effectively done with academic-industry partnership - something India lacks to a large extent. Imagine, our premier academic institutions working actively (with a grant from Government or Private foundations) in researching cost-effective ways of making these sarees (process innovation), designing better sarees (product innovation) to reflect changing societal trends, and redesigning the supply-chain (market innovation) to sell directly to the consumers. 4) We need to understand that "information" is a key aspect of revitalizing these industries. These weavers lack the information about the changing consumer preferences, newer techniques, and newer markets. Perhaps, Sarees, are not the only good these Weavers could manufacture. They should be constantly innovating. This is where Government has it's role - to promote and encourage innovation in each and every industry.
A number of industries who have tried the short-cut of seeking relief through anti-dumping duty by invoking the ground of China being a non-market economy have similarly suffered. If the domestic price of yarn was actually established to be higher than the export prices then chances are that the fabric also is being dumped and the industry should go for anti-dumping duty on fabrics too. If no direct evidence was available to establish that the domestic prices were higher than the export prices then it is possible that the proper course of action was to go in safeguard duty under Section 8C of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The safeguard duty is another trade protection measure under the WTO regime. If there are any trade associations in this industry or there are any Govt. Department/organization entrusted with welfare of this industry, they should check up the web site www.dgsafeguards.gov.in for further details.
I also live in Banaras. The muslim weavers of course have been very busy people for many years. Due to this they have many children (over 5-9) to work on the looms. Now they're jobless, many are commiting suicide like the farmers in Maharastra. THIS IS A TRUE STORY OF LAST YEAR: A friend of mine owns a store in Barabazar, Varanasi (a place that cud confuse you to a pakistani city). By accident, an old muslim weaver's lungli caught fire while my friend was burning his old papers out side his shop. This old man got 80% burns, and was treated in a private hospital at my friend's expense. 2 weeks later the old man succumbed to his burns. My friend paid off his family and I offered a job to his son. It was all very upsetting... The family invited us to their home after his funeral, as we became close to them. The old man had 8 sons and those sons had another 12 kids in total, add the women and you have an entire family of unemployed people. We saw their looms that have cobwebs on them.
While leaving and saying last kuda-hafis after a wreaking month of money-guzzling hositals, cops, death and political "apna roti-seko" tensions (my friend is a highcaste Brahmin) the youngest son murmured in my ear in Bhojpuri "good that abu has left, what would he do, theres nothing to do. At least the money you gave will keep us alive for some time, abu had become 'baekar' (useless) anyway..."
How terrible can that be? Politician are using the weavers still only as a vote bank.
I am truely shaken by this article. As a importer of finish good's (silk fabric) from china i amm ashemad to read this and also on another hand would like to suggest REDIFF MAIL TEAM to virtually go to china and visit there once famous (HANGZHOU CITY) SILK FABRIC MARKET and reveiw the development and support the chinese goverment give to there tradition and also to people to thrive to make it more alive day after day. Really if channel's or people like this (rediff mail) came in more support to our silk industry we can atleast show our smart and intelligent goverment people who chalk's the plan and strategies,to realise that word's on paper and work in implementation show's the difference. THANK YOU
RE:SAVE TRADITION IS NOT OUR POLICY
by on Nov 04, 2007 04:35 PM
Granted the government donot do anything. Well what do we do? We go on re-electing the same government year after year and scumb to their " gunda gardi" genrations after generations. Finally when we get too fed up we leave the country and resetle else were and forget we had a home called - INDIA. And then we talk of US / UK god knows were else governments doing better for their people. Well our governments are a reflection of ourselves - dont you think? cause we elect them - for India is suposed to be the biggerst democracy?
Geetanjali Krishna's work documents a sensitive and earnest analysis. Hypothetically the origin of Benarsi Sari or any other trade/craft would lie in the demand supply equation. This fact has to be addressed and respected. Our emotional bondage with our heritage and our sense of appreciation for the craft has saddened us for the present state is reflected by Geetanjali. Men of action are needed to provide motive power for the wheels to roll in the directions of our desire. He who desires for a change needs to do more that put ink to paper or fingers to the keyboard. Society needs Chandraguptas and not Chanakyas. We have a multitude of Chanakyas contained in our knowledge base of infinite years through which our civilization has flourished. Where is the action!?
A very nice article indeed.recently i visited the place and the reflections seen by the rediff news are absolutely true.It is a failure of anthropological marketing in india versus western marketing
Kudos to Geetanjali for a hard hitting, fact based article. Being a Benarasi myself I can relate to problems explained in this article at a personal level.
A big issue that haunts weavers%u2019 community in Benaras is illiteracy, which results into poor weavers getting exploited by traders of Kunjgali (read satti) financially. Subsequent governments in UP too have done nothing about providing education, health facilities, easy loan facilities etc to help weavers%u2019 community, these talented craftsman have been used time and again only as vote bank by one party or another (nothing more, nothing less). Even in current ongoing elections none of the major political parties (or local hopeful candidates) has promised/proposed a single solution that directly helps or provides any respite to the woes of Benarasi saree weavers. In past there have been reports about weavers committing suicide because of poverty, hunger but probably those incidents are still not enough for the power hungry, corrupt, immoral, sub-standard (even going by Indian standards!) clan of UP politicians.
I hope that weavers, tradesman and small businesses involved in currently dying Benarasi saree trade will confront the problem rather then shying away from it. These different stakeholders should perhaps come together and open more co-operatives such as the one in Ramnagar which might help in medium term.
RE:Reflections from a Benarasi
by Ken on Apr 22, 2007 09:10 AM
Yep, co-operatives sounds the best way forward? but if only such a fragmented group of people think rationally and set aside their diferences to take on the market makers together? Forget about governmental involvement, low hanging fruit is what they can go for anyways...the government is trying to uplift the situation by providing reservation in higher education... Identifying right vocational streams for such affected parties requires too much thought from government side!
All said and done, I hope the powers that be don't force people to compulsorily buy such things so that these people can sustain their lives!
