Certifying Pashmina

A trip to Delhi made Kashmiri artisans realize that fake Pashmina products are threatening their survival in the market making them explore options like GI tags to secure their livelihood and products. Syed Asma reports.

In 2005, a group of artisans from Kashmir visited New Delhi to attend an annual exhibition of Pashmina shawls. Most of the artisans were on their maiden visit outside Kashmir. They were excited to finally interact with the buyers directly for the first time. Traditionally artisans live an anonymous life as they remain confined to their small manufacturing units operated mostly from home. Usually their job ends after a shawl is manufactured and sold to a middle man. But Delhi exhibition was different. And artisans hoped to cash it well. On day one, artisans decorated their stalls with colourful Pashmina Shawls of different designs to attract customers. But their excitement was short-lived as soon as people started to pour in to buy different Pashmina based products. Their stalls failed to attract people despite selling authentic Pashmina products. “They would argue why a particular product is so costly,” said a Kashmiri exhibitor.

By the end of the day Kashmiri artisans realized that it is the cheap imitation of original Kashmiri Pashmina that attracts people. The group felt the urgency to save the genuine product. Once back home they joined hands to save their source of income and expose fake products. But they had no idea how to do that.

After spending a few years researching they came to know about Geographical Indication (GI) mark. “GI mark is the most effective means to save any genuine product,” said an artisan.

GI mark, a certification, helps in brand building. Certification, in ISO literature, is referred to as ‘Conformity Assessment System’. It helps the producer to acquire a stamp of authentication from a particular institution. In India, the institution is in Chennai. The GI Act registers geographically specific handicrafts under the act and acknowledges that a handicraft is unique and belongs to a particular area. This is supposed to be of great help to the artisan.

So far, Kashmir Pashmina, Kani shawl and Sozni Kashmir have been registered under GI Act. The products were registered under GI Act in 2008. It is said that the mark would be of a great help to the artisan community of Kashmir.

Over the centuries Pashmina Shawls with intricate designing and hues have become a fashion statement for high-end consumers, but the popularity of Kashmiri Pashmina production failed to elevate the economic condition of artisans.

“I never travelled; I could only earn to fulfil my basic needs with great difficulties. Luxury has been a dream,” says Nazir Ahmed, an artisan from Eidgah, Srinagar who is in the trade for more than 20 years.

Despite their first trip outside Kashmir as sellers, artisans were content to interact with people and understand the market. “We are happy with whatever sales we had. We consider that trip as a learning experience for us,” said Fayaz, a post graduate in Education, supported his studies by working as an artisan since his early teens. He is a resident of Narwara, Srinagar.

Fayaz feels lack of market knowledge and language barrier has kept local artists confined to their homes so far. He recalls an incident which took place during exhibition at New Delhi, where a French woman visited Ghulam Rasool’s stall, a fellow artisan from Kashmir.

Ghulam Rasool, a skilled artisan, hardly understands any language apart from Kashmiri. He can understand and speak only two English sentences. “This is Pashmina and this is not Pashmina.”

The woman after seeing the remarkable work of Ghulam Rasool took out a shawl from her bag and started comparing the two. At a glance, Ghulam Rasool noticed that her shawl was not pure Pashmina. He used one of his learnt sentences, “Madam, this is not Pashmina,” pointing towards her shawl. After a while, he pointed towards his Pashmina products and said, “This is Pashmina.”

The woman had purchased the fake Pashmina shawl for 300 Euros (Rs 21,120) which, Ghulam Rasool felt was huge for a counterfeit product. He told the French lady that her shawl is not worth more than Rs 500.

The incident was a shock for the Kashmiri artisans participating in the exhibition. They decided to react. After coming back they came up with a trust called ‘Kashmir Handmade Pashmina Product Trust’ (KHPPT) and decided to work for the preservation of Pashmina products.

KHPPT, now a 1000 members (artisans) strong trust started with just 35 members, who each year come up with hundreds of ‘pure Pashmina’ products and sell them on their own.

Chairman KHPPT, Ghulam Hassan, says they are trying their best to improve the condition of the artisans. “We try to give artisans discount over raw materials and each time try to pay them more than the usual rates,” says Hassan. Besides, he says, they also are training the artisans to market their product on their own.

Meanwhile, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) did a survey ‘socio-economic effects of ban on Kashmiri Shahtosh’. One of the recommendations of the report was that Pashmina is the only alternative for Shahtosh available in Kashmir, but they highlighted that it [Pashmina] is itself in threat because of the huge presence of its fake products in the market.

After this survey, since 2006, WTI and KHPPT sharing same goal of preserving Pashmina are working together, says Hassan.

While working together they came up with a solution of getting certified and protected under GI Act.

Later, the project was taken up by Craft Development Institute (CDI), Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and Directorate of Handicrafts, but since then nothing substantiate has come up yet, not even a laboratory.

One of the basic requirements of the project is a laboratory. “We so far have spent Rs 44 crores and the laboratory would be in use in next few months,” says Qazi Heena, coordinator of the project in CDI. “It will be of huge benefit for the artisan who makes handmade Pashmina products but for that they have to get properly registered.”

She adds, the required machinery is already here but we are waiting for Mumbai based experts to install them and train the locals.

It has been five years since the products were registered under the Act but Qazi says it is only last year that they started working on the laboratory.

The officials at CDI say, once the laboratory is functional they will use ‘Secure Authentication Fusion Transfer Label’ (SAFTL). SAFTL is a new generation brand identity solution. The tagless and heat transfer labels are replacing the traditional sewn-in labels.

The officials say this will be a failsafe security for the genuine products. The labels will include nano particle which are uniquely formulated objects covertly incorporated in the products. Nano particles are micro-sized, inert or rare elements or fluorescent fibres and are added to the packaging manufacturing process or applied and embedded onto the finished labels prior to selling the materials.

Qazi says, once the laboratory is functional they will start spreading awareness about the brand on local, national and international level. “The only thing that I know is that government is getting a machine that will approve pure Pashmina threads and will throw fake Pashmina away. Rest we were told we will see when they will get the machine. They haven’t got it yet, I guess!” Nazir from Eidgah said.

As per the GI Act, the GI mark is owned by the practitioners, so a group of artisans have formed a registered society named as ‘Tahafuz’ of which KHPPT is a part, a hand-out from CDI reads. So far the members of this society are ‘registered proprietors’ of the GI mark.

Tahafuz has 21 executive members but they are not sure about the total number of artisans registered with them, says Ghulam Hassan.

Theoretically, getting registered under GI act is suggested to be the best plan in place to standardize Kashmir Pashmina but the authorities are taking a bit of time to make it a practice.