Handwork and Heartwork

tRAnsfoRmAtIon In seRVICe

handwork and heartwork

The artisans and craft persons of native places know that their art and craft carries with it the knowledge of those that have gone before, the honed skills of producing something beautiful, meaningful and useful with your hands, and the knowledge that a created object is more than its form and shape.

A small organization but driven by vision located in the heart of Uttarakhand, and committed to bringing people together, starts with the understanding that all enterprises are indeed human enterprises.

Economies can be made by people, partnerships, shared goals, with tasks undertaken with joy in the work. This enterprise is a different sort of space than what you would expect of a typical program working towards livelihood for people with disability. One does not see a room full of persons with disabilities, congregated and segregated, churning out candles, and newspaper bags, and grinding spice or flowers for Holi colours. One does not see the signs of charity – the donation placards reminding us of the benevolent folks who donate. Nor does one see classrooms where adults are treated as children. Rather, the hum of the printer and the everyday noises of an office, combined with creative spaces for a small workgroup to work just like any other. A few people

The land provides what is needed to create useful and beautiful things

work in the space diligently, working together in harmony to meet the deadline of the order for the hand-made paper products they make. It is only in getting close, and interacting with the people, one would notice that some happen to have disabilities. The man who has started this small enterprise, does not tell us that this is a disability project, nor does he highlight it. He was keen not to do anything ‘special’ but rather chose the normative ways to bring about inclusion and employment to those who were in the margins, using the rich resource of a community steeped in the tradition and skill of working with the hands to create the artifacts of a community.

All give what they are best suited to contribute. Mr. Rishab, after a year of employment, uses his skills for precision to place eyelets on paper products while using his management and motivational skills to help run the office and keep people on-task. He posts the daily “quote for the day” for his co-workers and partners and has risen to the demands of the job. Behind his contributions are the desires to produce for the community with pride, to stand for generations of people who have done such meticulous handwork, and to share it with the rest of the peoples of the land. The commitment of the initiative now extends to hand-crafted furniture, and other products from the land.

A quick study of Social Role Valorization highlights the importance of the ordinary. In this space, the ordinary is actually extraordinary. The state of Uttarakhand is full of the richness of native handicrafts, produced by the hands of people over decades, with a market for the beautiful products from the hands of local people. The paper made here is made by people with and without disability, with a stake in their work, and shared profits among those who produce, not the service itself, not the salaries of professionals, but shared by the hard work and the heart work. The work is divided among all the workers, and everyone does their part regardless of the ability but keeping in mind interest and inclination. We are informed that the grounding of this enterprise is not filling the daytime hours with busy-ness, but instead with business that uplifts everyone. “Small is beautiful” as a principle guides this enterprise, and a small, integrated group of people work together to contribute to the national market in fine-quality local handwork – market integration, and people integration in the truest sense. There are many lessons to be learned, not the least of which is that the work of the hands has value, is not trivial, and has great importance in the cultural memory and real value to the economy.