Channapatna, Karnataka:
The controversy over lead in China-made toys couldn’t have come at a
better time for the toymakers of Channapatna, a town 60km south-east of
Bangalore. Over two centuries ago, Tipu Sultan, then king of Mysore and
its surrounding areas, invited wooden toymakers from Persia to teach
the art to local artisans. The toys were initially made from
Bangalore-based NGO Maya Organic encourages village women to make toys at Channapatna.
rosewood,
ivory and sandalwood. Today, the use of ivory has been banned, and
rosewood and sandalwood have become expensive. Toymakers at Channapatna
use cedar, pine, teak, or just about any wood they can lay their hands
on. Things were not looking good for the 3,000 surviving toymakers of
Channapatna. Their simple wood toys had lost out to imported Chinese
toys, mostly mechanical or electrical. Raw materials were not easily
available, and there was no organized effort to market the toys. Many
toymakers had even abandoned the vocation and become workers in the
booming construction industry. Maya Organic, a Bangalore-based
non-governmental organization that looks at livelihood issues related
to Channapatna’s toymakers, has been working with the toymakers of
Channapatna in an effort to improve the quality of their produce as
well as find a market for it overseas.
Then the China controversy erupted.
According
to B.K. Srinivas, the person in charge of research, quality and a few
other functions at Maya Organic, there has been a spike in demand over
the past few months because customers, both in the local and export
markets, are turning away from China-made toys.
Maya Organic
says it will export around Rs80 lakh worth of Channapatna toys this
year, mainly to the UK and other parts of Europe. It plans to enter the
US market later this year.
Channapatna’s toys are made from
wood that is not chemically treated, and the toymakers largely use
vegetable dyes to paint them. The toymakers have also learnt to look
beyond toys—at home accessories and decorative items.
The
revival of interest in wood toys has helped people such as 33-year-old
Rukamma, a mother of three. Rukamma, who uses only one name, owns a
lathe with which she makes small toys. She earns between Rs80 and Rs150
a day by selling her produce to small retail units in Channapatna.
The
revival of demand has encouraged Krishna Singh, a 38-year-old
electronics graduate, to come back and take up his father’s
profession—toymaking. “My father set up this manufacturing retail unit
45 years ago. We have now developed clients in Delhi and Mumbai, who
have an eye for children’s toys and handicraft items.” Singh’s company
has even started branding its products (under the name Zanzibar) and
exporting them.
Play station:
1. Stocks of
raw wood for meant for making toys.
2. Bangalore-based NGO
Maya Organic encourages village women to make toys at Channapatna.
3.B.K. Srinivas take cares of R&D, quality control and despatch at the NGO’s Channapatna unit.
4. All the parts of the toys undergo
quality check before assembly and packaging.
(Photographs by Hemant Mishra)
