Crafts and Livelihood- woodcraft and furniture industry Ameeshi Goenka

DISCLAIMER This is not the research paper, just the initial topic presentation.

Wooden furniture

Research participant 1- Anish Khan

Place of work- Bangalore

Anish Khan

Wife and kids- Yes Position- Sales person at Smart furniture Years worked- 8 Store location- Infantary road Workshop location- Tannery road No. of employees- Many Workshop employees- from Saharanpur Government concessions to employees- Nil Customized furniture- Yes Materials- Locally acquired Profit- enough to support their livelihood and they work even when they have losses Peak days of sale- Saturday and Sunday Peak months of sale- Dussehra, Diwali and Ugadi Bargain- happens a lot Government support to the firm- Nil (private company) Government exhibitions and fairs- Do not attend

• Miscellaneous Information-

They buy the furniture from the workshop and sell it to the customers. They have more than one supplier. They have minimal profit margin. Customers bargain heavily. They have wooden furniture, upholstery and sofa making. The shop exists for the last fifteen years.

Woodcraft and furniture

Research participant 2- Mohammed Abit

Place of work- Bangalore

Mohammed Abit

Wife and kids- Yes Position- Sales person Years worked- 10 to 12 years Stall location- Safina Plaza Workshop location- Laksandra No. of employees- 15 people and others (division of labour) Workshop employees- from Uttar Pradesh Government concessions to employees- Nil Customized furniture or products- Yes Materials- Purchased in bulk from the jungles while it’s being cut by another company Profit- enough to support their livelihood and they work even when they have losses Peak days of sale- Saturday and Sunday and other national holidays Peak months of sale- Dussehra and Diwali Bargain- Inevitable Government support- take care of travelling and stall expenses at fairs Government exhibitions and fairs- Attend all of them

• Miscellaneous Information-

They have a permanent stall in Chennai as they have in Bangalore. No severe competition in this industry. He started this work with his boss at Muradabad initially. No major troubles. They strictly follow division of labour at their workshop in Laksandra. They have photographers clicking pictures of objects and bringing back designs.

Woodcraft

Research participant 3- Siddharth Sharma

Place of work- Bangalore

Siddharth Sharma

Wife and kids- No

Position- Sales person

Years worked- 15

Stall location- Safina Plaza

Workshop location- No workshop

Government concessions to employees- No

Customized products- No

Materials- N/A

Profit- enough to support their livelihood and they work even when they have losses

Peak days of sale- Saturday and Sunday

Peak months of sale- Ganesh Chaturti, Sankranthi, Diwali and Rakhi

Bargain- Inevitable

Government support to the firm- take care of travelling and stall expenses at fairs

Government exhibitions and fairs- All of them

• Miscellaneous Information-

He had a DCH card provided by the government used to hold free stalls at the government fairs and exhibitions. His full family is in this business. They buy the products from many manufacturers in Udaipur.

Major Difficulties Faced

• They worked on a regular basis even if the incurred loses.

• No customer is ever expected by the shop owner to buy the pieces again as even they understand that its utility is fulfilled by just buying it once. They do hope for new customers everyday though.

• Since there are no set standards that a manufactured product must live up to, the customers bargain almost to less than half price and doubt the skills of the artisans , materials used by them, durability of the final product and the labour work employed to get that final product. The salesmen in this industry, then seem helpless and make zero to minimal profits to earn a livelihood.

• The production in this industry hasn’t progressed much over the years. The same amount of production that was done ten years ago is continued even today with very little progress and the demand has reduced incredibly.

Appendices

• Audio recordings of the research participants can be downloaded from-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/psy5n498bphdblg/ef_5lxrACk

• Link to download the questionnaire-

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qrbp26x81d38eow/questionnaire.docx

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