Why Ancient

Toy Makers
Of Karnataka
Are Being
Forced To
Give Up
Their Craft
Posted on June 20, 2016 in Culture-
Vulture, Staff Picks, Stories by YKA

By Nadeem
Ahmed and Elizabeth
Mani for Youth Ki Awaaz:

In a dimly lit room with the

ceiling peeling off at many
places, Rukamma P is hard
at work. A sack of beads
lies close by and next to her
is a hacksaw with a blade
sharp enough to cut and
carve wood. The 40-year-
old toymaker is busy
carving simple symmetrical
toy parts from blocks of
wood.

Rukamma has been making

toys since she was 15. A
quarter century later, shes
an expert, having learnt and
mastered the art from her
mother. Her earnings are
nothing to go to town with
but she loves making toys
with her hands. I hardly
make Rs 200 a day, says
the mother of two.

She belongs to one of the

dwindling tribes of toy-
makers of Channapatna, a
town 60 kilometers from
Bengaluru on the
Bengaluru-Mysore highway.
Also known as Gombegala
Ooru or the Land of Toys,
till not a few years ago,
Channapatna was famous
for its high quality wooden
toys (mainly ivory wood),
and its lacquerware.

The traditional miniature

toys, like spinning tops and
dolls, made here are
smooth, durable and
coloured with natural dyes,
making them ideal for
children. While some toys
are easily manufactured by
a single worker, some of
them need the effort of
multiple workers, designing
and producing different
parts of the toys and later
assembling it together. The
time taken to make these
eco-friendly toys varies from
one to four hours.
Rukamma making a toy at
her home.

City Lights Killing

The Toy Story
Rukammas husband is also
a toymaker. And so was her
son, 24-year-old Gangadhar
P, the elder of her two
children, till about two years
ago.
This was when he and 20
other youth of Channapatna
took a bus and left for
Bangalore in search
of better, more paying
jobs.

Gangadhar is all for making

toys and preserving the
identity of the traditional art,
but adds, In todays
situation, we cannot
depend on toy-making to
take care of our
families. He further
mentions that at least 400
toymakers of Channapatna
have migrated to Bengaluru
to do all kinds of jobs.

Most of the 20 who left with

him found some work in the
big city. Gangadhar himself
works in an electronics
shop and makes Rs 12,000
a month, four times what he
used to earn making toys in
Channapatna.

With more and more

toymakers giving up the
profession and migrating to
cities and other towns in
search of a better livelihood,
today, Chennapatna is
a waning town.
Handmade To
Factory-Made
While Rukamma uses hand
tools to make toys, a few
kilometres from her dimly-lit
room, in an outlying lane of
Channapatna, stands a
building that reverberates
with the sounds of fast-
moving wood cutting
machines. A handful of men
operate these machines.

This is a toy factory a

Karnataka government
initiative started in the year
2000 to mechanise and
increase toy production.

The factory comprises of

four machines and has
unfinished toy parts in huge
sacks stacked all over. With
left over wooden shavings
on the floor and colorfully
finished toys in a box ready
to be sold, the ramshackle
factory is open not only to
workers but also to buyers
interested in these toys at
cheap rates.
 Mohan
making a toy in the
government facility.
Mohan C, 50, a skilled toy-
maker from when he was
18, is one of those who
make toys using these
machines. He says that he
has not benefited from the
factory. That is because the
rise in cost of living has
outstripped whatever he
can earn by being part of
the factory set-up.

He also complains of the

frequent power cuts. I dont
know any other job and I
dont have the option to
move out, says Mohan,
adding ominously, In 10
years there will be no
toymaker left in
Channapatna.

Mohans 23-year-old son

Vinay M is a toymaker-
turned-barber. His 12-year-
old daughter Devika, a 6th
grader, aspires to be a
doctor. Even that prospect
does not lift Mohans
spirits. Its useless to
dream. Why raise
expectations when nothing
you wish for will ever come
true, says a clearly
defeated Mohan.

Playing With
Tradition, A Dying
One At That
Similar stories run up and
down the streets of this
town. One of several towns
in Ramanagara district,
where the Bollywood
blockbuster Sholay was
shot, Channapatna is
spread across 58,000
hectares and is as big as
Mumbai! For centuries,
most of the families in this
town of 72,000 have been
making wooden toys for a
living.

But that legacy is now

taking a hit from the
constant migration of expert
toy-makers.

The origins of toy making in

Channapatna, which is 65
kilometers from the
medieval city of
Srirangapatnam, can be
traced to the 18th century
rule of Tipu Sultan. That
was when the monarch
brought Persian toymakers
to his Sultanate to train
local handicraft workers and
artisans.

Today, those traditional

skills of Channapatnas
toymakers are globally
recognised and protected
as a geographical indication
(GI) by the World Trade
Organisation. This ensures
that these toys cannot be
copied and made anywhere
else in the world.

But though the fame and

name of Channapatna toys
resonates with pride
globally, people in the
industry have only tales of
injustice and grief to
narrate.

Made In China
There are more than 5000
toymakers in Channapatna
and 1033 of them are
government registered. But
the number of artisans has
declined drastically in the
last decade mainly because
of the influx of cheap
lookalike China-made toys.

Toymaker Syed Samiullah

says cheap, low-quality
Chinese toys have killed the
market for the nature-
friendly Channapatna
toys. Till a few years ago,
the town was full of
toymakers. Then people
migrated to cities, says
Samiullah.

In December 2015, the

government on the floor of
the Lok Sabha admitted to
the harm done to Indian
toymakers by Chinese
imports. The Indian toys
industry has been hit by the
import of Chinese
toys, Giriraj Singh, Minister
of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises, told the Lower
House.

Toy imports increased at a

compound annual rate of
25% between 2001 and
2012, says an August 2013
report of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce of
India (ASSOCHAM).
The toy industry in India is
concentrated mainly in the
small and cottage sectors
with about 4,000
manufacturers in all. Nearly
40% of Indian toymakers
have already closed shop in
the last five years and
another 20 per cent are on
the verge of calling it a day,
says the report.
 The
government points to this
facility which was set up to
support artisans.
Efforts by the central and
various state governments
to save the domestic toy
industry have not been of
much help.
The Karnataka government
provided residential facilities
and set up a factory under
various schemes for
toymakers. We have
allotted 254 houses to
toymakers and we
constantly buy products
from registered
toymakers, said KSHDC
(Karnataka State
Handicrafts Development
Corporation Ltd) project
manager Naman Sharif to
YKA.

He insists that the

government has, since
1985, been providing all
sorts of relief to the toy-
makers of Channapatna
including subsidised power
and housing. Yet, they
keep coming up with
different problems. Their
greed knows no limits.

The state government also

set up a factory to help
toymakers increase
production. But the factory
can support only 30
artisans. There are scores
of other toymakers who
covet similar support.
Take the case of Papanna
C, 47, a toymaker who has
to work from home and who
wants to be part of the
factory set-up. But
because of capacity
constraints, I could not be
accommodated, says
Papanna.

Startups To Power
The Toymakers
Fact is, these artisans need
support in terms of
marketing and re-inventing
the art to suit todays
markets. And even though
the administration has
made some half-baked
attempts to save the art, it is
by recognising the immense
potential in these toys, that
many young entrepreneurs
have come forward to make
the toys more appealing to
customers.

Firms like Channapatna-

based Maya Organic,
Bengaluru-based Varnam
and Channatoys have
introduced online marketing
strategies to reach out to
more customers. By
maintaining quality and
constantly innovating
designs, these firms have
been able to capture large
chunks of the market.

Programme coordinator
of Maya Organic, Shaheeda
Bano commented on the
initiatives by government,
and said, Government
authorities dont know the
actual requirements of the
artisans. They do give
different facilities but it
doesnt actually help them.

She further added that,

since the income from toy
making isnt fixed, the
government should focus
more on training the
artisans about modern
designs and also come up
with a plan or scheme that
can substantially help the
toymakers rather than
acting as middle men.

Over a hundred artisans

work with Maya Organic of
which 70% are women.
Pointing at their condition,
Shaheeda opined, Men in
Channapatna have lot of
options but the women
have no choice. As an
organisation, Maya Organic
has its own limitations and
can work with only small
group of artisans while
helping them design their
products and market them
in a better way.

Such efforts have been

successful and if done on a
large-scale, could help
Channapatna retain its
name and fame as the
Land of Toys.

Toys made
in the government facility.

A Tradition That
Needs Saving, But
Will We?
Papanna, who is proud of
his toy making skills says
that he was taken to Delhi
by the government in 2008
to showcase his work at a
seminar with the promise
that he

would be given a certificate

that would help him apply
for and secure bank loans.
I received a certificate,
yes. But I couldnt get any
loan despite multiple
attempts and efforts, says
Papanna. He looks at his
house provided by the
government in 1997 and
says, Water leaks from all
corners, whenever it rains.

Years ago, the town of

Channapatna was full of
toymakers and as time
passed people started
moving from here finding it
hard to manage their
livelihood, Samiullah
recalls, as he walks back to
his house from the factory
with some colourful
spinning tops and bangles
wrapped in a bag and tied
onto his old bicycle.
Nadeem Ahm