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.”
“The film industry has increasingly catered to entertainment than addressing issues. Once, film-makers believed they could change lives through their films but the scene isn’t the same anymore. We must increase dialogue in this area if we want to make a difference to the community,” Irrfan Khan said.
Neelkanth Mama, a nomadic shepherd who has spent a lifetime fighting industrialization of poultry and farming, said: “Our livestock and soil have the capacity to provide for us. We don’t need chemicals and technology that ruin soil to make produce better.”