A BRIEF NOTE ON THE WEAVERS, ARTISANS AND TRADITIONAL ARTISTS’ GUILD

The Weavers, Artisans and Traditional Artists’ Guild (hereafter referred to as WATAG), is a trust registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882. Its registered office is at present situated at Kolkata in the state of West Bengal in India.

The idea of forming a guild to promote/ protect the interest of India’s traditional economy was formed as a result of a brain storming session held on 7th November, 2015, organized jointly by the Bangiya Paramparik Karu O Bastra Shilpi Sangha and the Entrepreneurship Club of IBS Business School (IBS), Kolkata.

The “Weavers, Artisans and Traditional Artists Guild” was formed formally on 12 December, 2015, to create unique platform for the traditional weavers, artisans and traditional artists; so that the guild can work as pressure group to pursue their community interest to the government, non-government, multilateral organizations.

WATAG shall act as a lobby group to pursue the cause to the issue of rural technology, rural entrepreneurship, rural economy, rural livelihood, rural employment generation, rural infrastructure – as a whole to the cause of holistic rural development.

The guild shall undertake various steps and to devise policy to document, propagate and spread traditional knowledge still exists in the society. It shall essentially play the role of a spokesperson to the communities it represents. Besides, the guild will try to undertake research, survey and constitute fact finding team as well as various other methods to understand the grassroots situation of its primary stakeholders.

Going forward, WATAG shall act as knowledge repository to its core constituents. It will establish knowledge-bank, technology-bank, and artisan bank for the benefit of its constituents.

Traditional individual artisans, weavers and performing artists as well as registered, non-registered groups, institutions promoted by these communities can be the members of this guild.