Development of scheduled caste leather artisans : profile, problems & prospects

Increasing exports of Indian leather and leather goods in recent years has been matched by a growing interest in the potential for realising further quantitative and qualitative growth. The development of this traditional industry, based on a widespread natural resources, holds out considerable promise of employment generation in rural areas. While macro-level trading figures draw attention, there remains a wide gap in our knowledge of vital issues at the village level on which the entire industry is based-the organisation and activities of rural leatherwork, the pattern of employment and the economic returns.

With the technological upgradation and mechanisation of the leather industry, the traditional unorganised sector of leather industry has declined in the last two decades and this trend is still continuing. This has resulted in the decline in employment in the rural household sector. The present study seeks to understand the dynamics of change in the traditional socio-institutional and techno-economic patterns of various facets of the cottage leather work and the leather artisans belonging to the Scheduled Castes. It constitutes an attempt to examine the socio-economic factors that have contributed to the declining trends in the rural leather industry as a contribution to perspectives which will determine the policy recommendations for ameliorating the lots of the Scheduled Caste artisans and for reviving the fast declining rural leather industry.