Vocationalization of Art in Remote and Backward Areas With special reference to Handicrafts of Agra District

Abstract

Despite the vast research and developmental schemes launched by Government of India for the artisans, very little are benefitted with the various steps taken. The overall image that emerges from the literature is negative: as unorganized marketing and inadequate market information, power breakdowns, poor working conditions, low productivity, unorganized production, low education, low quality of raw material, lack of funding, no interaction between customer and artisans, lack of market linkages, dominance of middlemen and outdated production methods. The research recovers some of the artisans perspective for government officials, NGO s as well as public at large through intense surveys, questionnaires and qualitative interviews with 150 artisans of remote and backward areas of Agra district. Five point Likert scale is used for the evaluation of primary data and data analysis is done by using advanced statistical package (SPSS). The results of this research add new perception to our perceptive towards artisans. The study is important as in spite of problems and increasing influence of modernity and mechanization, the arts of Agra District continue to receive world-wide praise but now the major problem is that the artisans have only limited awareness of the jobs available in the market and also the challenges faced by artisans are pushing them into other daily wage earning jobs so it is essential to search for and recognize art skills and their potential for development and provide necessary improvements to make them marketable and also concrete efforts are needed to upgrade the slow nature of production, hence they need to be trained according to the requirement of the jobs as the work opportunities are changing rapidly. This study seeks to examine the relatively new trend in skill development alternative; namely, Vocationalization: its aspects, need, benefits and problems. In the present era of globalization capital, technology, high skill and productivity play a major role in market. By creating interest and improving skills among artisans will help large number of workers to shift from informal or unorganized sector to formal or organized sector and ensure income. The most crucial component to ensure employment is to develop the skills according to the demand of the market. This research will contribute to future research on similar topics. newline