Ordinarily, if one were to say that a traditional craft or an art form was still immensely popular, it would spell good news for the specialised artisans. Ironically, skilled phulkari craftswomen of Punjab are facing tough times, despite a growing demand for their work.

Phulkari, literally flower-crafting, is an embroidery brought to the Patiala district of Punjab by a few craftsmen who had migrated from Bhawalpur, near Multan in West Pakistan, after the partition of India in 1947.

Traditionally, the embroidery comprises long and short darn stitches on hand-woven khadi cloth in five colours: green, fuschia, rust or orange, cream, and bluish-purple. While the stitch is uncomplicated, it is the size of the stitch that determines the quality of the phulkari — the smaller the stitch, finer the embroidery. The motifs are generally geometric or floral.

While phulkari is simple and sparse, a more complex version was later evolved, called bagh (garden). In this style, the embroidery covered every inch of the base material.

The art form is a very popular form of employment among rural women in Patiala, especially in Tripuri, where girls learn the craft at a young age. It is estimated that phulkari is the only source of earning for more than 5,000 people (largely women) in the district.

"It is an extremely intricate form of embroidery and takes a lot of time and hard work. If we do the traditional work, which our ancestors perfected, it would take three to six months to complete one piece that would fetch anything between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 in the market," says Kiran Chhabra, an award-winning craftswomen.

Chhabra was conferred the Kamala Devi Puraskar in 1996. Her work has been exhibited at shows and fairs across the country.

While the art was patronised by the princely families of Patiala in earlier times, it has now found favour with the markets. Today, phulkari embellishes salwar suits, dupattas, saris, home furnishings, jackets, caps, and so on.

Though commercialisation has resulted in employment for thousands of women — nearly every household in Tripuri has an embroiderer – the quality of work and the embroiderer's compensation have been greatly suffered.
"We hardly get anything — just about Rs 35 to Rs 45 per suit. A 'dupatta' (long stole), which may take a month to embroider, brings in only Rs 500 for us. Even though we know that it will be sold in the market for as much as Rs 3,000, we can't negotiate a price," complains Roopmati, a local embroiderer.

Reduced margins

Most women say that they cannot ask for a better price because they know that if they refuse to accept the market rate, they will lose the assignment to another embroiderer. Local shopkeepers, on the other hand, state that with a virtual mushrooming of people doing business in phulkari, their profit margins have been reduced to less than Rs 10 per salwar suit.

So, things have only become tougher for genuine phulkari craftpersons. "What passes off as phulkari today is nowhere near what we used to do or had learnt from our mothers and aunts. But I have the satisfaction of having done good quality work and have taught the same to my daughter and granddaughter. We used to make bags on which the embroidery was so intricate and so full that one could not see the base fabric," reveals Ram Piari, 90, a craftswoman, who only recently stopped working because of her failing eyesight.

"Traditional work is rare to find. Though there are some craftswomen who still follow the original style, nowadays even French knot work and Sindhi embroidery are passed off as phulkari. Ironically, it is the widespread commercialisation of the craft that has led to its downfall," says Chhabra, who is also Piari's granddaughter.

Besides the compromise on quality, there is another change: Fast coloured synthetic threads have replaced the traditional hand-made silk thread, which are no longer available. Some women, however, claim that the silk skeins are available in Pakistan.

Booming business

There is no denying that phulkari is a booming business in Punjab. But considering that the artisans are not getting their due because of an over-kill, it is time the state government lent a helping hand to local entrepreneurs by giving access to subsidised loans and assistance in marketing. "Most craftspersons involved in this business are uneducated. It is not possible for them to handle the cumbersome paperwork required when applying for loans," says Gurpreet Singh, proprietor of a popular phulkari emporium in Patiala.

The need of the hour is to organise the women — perhaps a cooperative society could be formed. This would help in removing the middlemen, especially in the case of big orders.

Women's Feature Service