Benefiting the artisans

Bidri art is a creation of masters. The art of inlaying silver onto black metal requires lots of patience and constant hard work. 

Today, this art is on the verge of decline and efforts are on to preserve it for future generations. Institutions like the Bidar Yuva Mandal are working towards its revival. Besides getting artifacts made, the organisation is conducting awareness and training programmes about the art.

The Bidri art is one that demands high levels of skill and expensive raw material. In old days, artisans engraved designs on metal objects and the rulers of the Bahmani Kingdom and others put these artifacts into daily use. Sadly, today it is just an object of decor and a symbol of royalty. Being the chief patron of arts, the government purchases these artifacts for emporiums and also for sale. In November 2006, Bidri art was accorded the Geographical Indication – an intellectual property strategy under World Trade Organisation rules, directed at adding brand value and preventing cheap replicas. Though the money is slowly trickling in, the income is not consistent.

Artisans dot the bylanes of Bidar, busy in their workshop. They use copper and zinc to make an object, using 90 per cent of zinc and 10 per cent of copper before giving the final touch, inlaying silver. They use the special soil, which is found only within the Bidar fort and not elsewhere. Resins and castor oil are the other raw materials.

According to them the expensive artifacts fetch anything from Rs 30 to Rs 8 lakhs!
Mohammad Rouf, a national and state award winning artisan lets in on the intricacies of making a Bidriware. “It’s our profession since generations. We had created a huge pot with Bidri art that was presented to American president Barack Obama by Ratan Tata, when the former visited India recently. It cost Rs 8 lakhs,” he says with a proud smile before adding, “only people who are subtle in their taste are connoisseurs of Bidri art”. The art of Bidri would have faded long ago. I plan to train our new generation and wait for a nod from the National Institute of Designs. I am going to start a traning centre after I get approval, Rouf says. The artisan recently designed a dinning table inlaid with 3.5 kg silver for businessman Vijay Mallya which was sold out for lakhs. The table top was inlaid with mother-of-pearl pieces.

The Bidar Yuva Mandal has tied up with institutions like MSME Gulbarga, Zilla Panchayat, Bidar, Karnataka Handicraft Development Corporation, Bangalore, Department of Handloom, Bidar, Heritage Department, Bangalore, NABARD, Bidar, AXIM Bank, Mumbai, VITC, Bangalore, Nehru Yuva Kendra, Bidar, BMC Department, Bidar, Women & Child Development, Bidar and the National Institute of Design of Ahmedabad, whose designers are training the local artisans.

The Mandal helps artisans who cannot afford their family expenses or who do not have the capacity to purchase the raw material used to make the artifact. The objective is overall development of the rural and urban poor, especially women and children. The organisation is providing raw materials, designs and has also created a platform online to sell their wares through the Net and via exhibitions. Bidri wares can be purchased online at www.bidrihandicrafts.com.

Apart from organising artisan skill development programme to promote Bidri art by implementing new technolgies that impressed the artisans and benefited them, the Mandal is also promoting 32 Self Help Groups (SHGs) in Bidar taluk with the goal of poverty alleviation. The SHGs are trained in book keeping, entrepreneurship, income generation, leadership, panchayat raj etc. Thanks to the Exim Bank artisans have managed to sell 80 per cent of their wares to countries like Australia, Germany, the US and the UK among others.