Artisan community looks at tax revolution

BENGALURU: Bringing together weavers, craftsmen, forest dwellers, fisherfolk, animal herders and other hand-working communities, the tax denial satyagraha held yet another campaign through a national symposium on the Handmade. The daylong event here on Saturday featured sessions and talks by several people from the community.

MS Sathyu

, director and theatre personality, handloom activist

Uzramma

, livestock activist

Neelkanth Mama

and actor Irrfan Khan were present with others raising a common chant — No tax on the handmade. “This year could mark a revolution by the

artisan community

to provide a democratic and equitable future, one void of violence which brought us here in the first place. The industrial revolution violently began to take away the livelihood of artisans. This satyagraha must mark an end to that violence,” said Uzramma.

The symposium highlighted these resolutions: The GST council must remove all taxes on handmade products, the Union and state governments should take measures to get better prices for the handmade; a separate ministry should be established with budgetary allocations for the 60% population that depends on producing handmade products.

They also demanded the government adopt a new definition for the Handmade: Any product that uses not less than two-thirds of the hand process and not more than one-thirds of the machine process. M S Sathyu said, “Preservation of art doesn’t have to be on the computer. Preservation is done by passing on the knowledge, art to the next generation.”