Design Education for Chikan Artisans based on Traditional Knowledge: A Tool for Social Innovation
Chikankari: The craft of Chikankari has been a much explored craft which has always been regarded as a craft done as a leisurely activity and does not call for serious wages. The stakeholders of this craft are more than 2.5 lakh who are spatially and socially distant. This craft is divided in various phases which makes it distinct from other crafts of India. It can be subdivided in clusters of printers, embroiderers, washermen, tailors(darzi) and this makes it a unique model as none of them can independently complete the craft. The development efforts in past have concentrated on a segment of embroiderers while ignoring the others involved in cluster.
There have been models of success stories of craft education by organizations like Kalaraksha, IICD, Craft Development Institute and more which have made a change to social structure of crafts. Chikan is a unique model in itself for such an experimentation due to its division of work and also from the environment sustainability front, as the traditional technique of washing with organic material has given way to chemical treatment. Design education based on traditional knowledge of artisans would develop models that can work in a group for collective development and social, economic and environment sustainability.