SOMETIMES, things make their presence felt by sheer absence. So it has been with crafts in the school curriculum for me. For the past three years, I have been working with a team of traditional artisans to generate awareness about traditional Indian arts and crafts amongst school children in New Delhi. During the course of one such interaction, a teacher asked why we needed to do something like this? At first, I was totally perplexed – Why did she feel the need to ask this question? Was it because of a perception that in this intensely technological world, there is no space for people who work with their hands? What about the children themselves – where did crafts figure in their lives? What did they really think about people for whom crafts is not just a livelihood but also a way of life?

Perhaps a closer look at my motivation to undertake such an endeavour may provide some clues. As a mother of a nine year old, I wanted craft to figure in some way in my child’s life. I realized that with todays childrens’ ambitious academic workload, quota of Barbie dolls and computer games, western movies and cartoons, craft was somehow slipping away.

For most children, as they rush from school to music or dance lessons, tennis and taekwondo classes, craft is something far removed from their daily lives, relegated to the half-hour or forty minute period every week or fortnight in most schools. Or if the school has a well developed art and craft department, children may pursue craft activities with pleasure while they are there, aware that they might have to forget it once out of school. Yet, my experience is that whenever children get a chance to interact with craftspeople, they are fascinated. Time and again, I have watched how captivated they are at the lac bangle-maker’s stall, how eagerly they reach out for the clay, impatient to try their luck at the potter’s wheel.

All these experiences contrast very sharply with how and where craft fits into school curriculum. In most schools where the emphasis is on academic achievement, craft is the subject given least priority and often relegated to assigning some mundane, mindless task to the children. Sadly, in many schools, craft projects are not designed to stimulate the young minds or foster respect. Children look upon them as cumbersome tasks and if these craft projects are to be graded, many parents resort to taking help from professionals. So you have projects and products made by adults masquerading as stuff made by children, an act that totally subverts the notion of why crafts should feature in the curriculum at all.

This led to the idea to take artisans to schools so that children could engage with them and learn craft in an exciting, new way. In bringing artisans and children together, my hope is to provide a platform where the knowledge systems familiar to the traditional practitioners can be highlighted and where children can learn about alternative worldviews. Above all, my motivation is that children might inculcate a deep and abiding love for crafts and gain respect for craftspeople.

 

Unschooled but learned in the intuitive play of form and colour, unlettered but creators of a highly sophisticated visual vocabulary, Ganesh and Teju are singers and artists from Gujarat. A year ago when they visited a school in Delhi, they entranced schoolchildren at the morning assembly with their powerful singing with only a sarangi for accompaniment. Soon, the entire assembly joined in, clapping in time, students quick to copy the melody, even if they did not understand the words.

When children work with traditional practitioners using their materials and techniques, there is a vital flow of knowledge and the children are exposed to new materials and methods, as also new possibilities of working with familiar materials. The interactions often serve as catalysts, inspiring the children to go on exciting journeys of self-expression, creating in them a desire to explore their artistic abilities.

At a recent interaction between school children and Madhubani paper-machie artists, the children were amazed that old paper and clay, when moulded by hand and painted, could become such charming animals. The artisans were demonstrating how to make turtle candle-holders but soon the tables were filled with elephants, dolphins, monsters and even Pokemon candle-holders. The children’s joy at crafting something with their own hands and the total concentration which most of them lavished on their lumps of paper-machie were simply awe-inspiring.

Crafts, as I have found in my own life, allow for great learning and are a wonderful and productive way to spend time. In the process of crafting, the mind, body and soul come together and one creates something magical and beautiful. It is a proven fact that children benefit greatly from craft activities in terms of improved motor skills, better hand-eye coordination and develop a good understanding of colour and proportions. Additionally, when children engage in crafts, they learn skills related to logical thinking and problem solving.

 

This is most evident when you observe children of traditional craft practitioners. Growing up as they do, surrounded by their elders busy at work, these children intuitively assimilate coordination skills that will leave you and me fumbling at the task. Sona, the seven year old daughter of Montu and Joba Chitrakar, scroll painters from West Bengal, paints with great felicity, executing lines and contours with a disarming ease that is hard to follow. In the countless bamboo craft communities I have visited in Northeast India, young children can split and weave bamboo slivers with great dexterity, years of keen observation coming to the fore.

By being participatory and hands-on, crafts are a great way to demonstrate generalized concepts learnt in other subjects such as mathematics, science and arts in school. Learning craft in the classroom also fosters social skills, especially if the projects are designed to be collaborative. Craft in the curriculum will definitely go a long way in generating interest in learning per se and will greatly add to the child’s self-confidence. The child’s natural sense of curiosity is able to blossom during any craft activity and the sequence of ‘what next’ allays any sense of boredom, resulting in a great sense of achievement when the project is finally completed.

 

In children born into traditional craft communities, this is most visible when the child takes it upon himself or herself to push the tradition forward. I have seen this with Bhuvnesh Kumar, the son of master potters, Giriraj and Angoori Devi, who even as a young child wanted to do something more, something new. This quest to constantly push boundaries culminated in creating a pot 10 feet tall, a remarkable achievement given the fact that he did not have the opportunity to work in a pottery studio with proper equipment nor even have access to a kiln that could fire something so large. Yet he persevered and his efforts fetched him a national award at a relatively young age.

Another reason why it is critical to strengthen crafts in curriculum is that it will facilitate interactions between children and craftspeople, a critical step in ensuring the continuation of our traditional heritage. There is an urgent need, more pressing than ever before in the context of globalization, to preserve and promote our distinctive craft legacies. Involving children in any movement allows for a great degree of success – they are committed, passionate advocates of the cause they believe in. The ‘Say No to Crackers’ campaign in Delhi is a valid example of how children can successfully bring about positive change. Similarly, if children see the need to preserve and promote Indian craft, they will become committed to the cause and contribute to it.

The potential for crafts to serve as stress-busters deserves to be highlighted in the context of the tremendous tensions faced by students today. The level of competition for admissions into institutes for higher studies and jobs has increased substantially, resulting in relentless pressure for school children to get better grades. Sadly, children hardly have any childhood left. Crafts in schools, if properly organized, allow children to be creative without being competitive and to express themselves imaginatively. If children can absorb themselves in creative and productive craft pursuits even for a short while, stress levels can be better managed and the rash of suicides and drug-taking may be avoided. Giving yourself a second chance is what craft fosters – if you’ve not got it right the first time, try again or just go ahead and create something new.

As a practitioner and promoter of crafts, I have felt its magical, transformative touch all my life. I am also grateful for all of life’s lessons learnt by way of crafts. And just to pass on this magic to the next generation, I hope to be able to take many strangers to many classrooms and make craft a much desired subject. Perhaps, even a coveted homework assignment! By bringing crafts into the curriculum more strongly, we can ensure that children enjoy the lasting joy and pleasure of working with one’s hands. Perhaps, children might get inspired to carve out some space for craft in their lives, now and forever.