CONCEPT PAPER ON

TRADITIONAL POTTERY/TERRACOTTA CRAFT CLUSTER OF

THE HIRA COMMUNITY OF NIZ-KHATOWAL VILLAGE, BAJIA DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK, SAMAGURI , DIST. NAGAON, ASSAM

Prepared by: North Eastern Centre For Technology Application And Rural Development
(NECTAR), Sangam Bhawan, M.C. Bora Road, Nagaon, Assam

1. GENERAL BACKGROUND OF THE AREA

Situated at a distance of 20 Km. from Nagaon Town Niz-khatowal revenue village is a

vast area consisting of 3-part villages viz. 1. Niz-khatowal 2. Kuruabahi and 3. Borongatoli
mostly dominated by Scheduled Caste population under Bajia Development Block in the district
of Nagaon. Most of these scheduled caste people here are of Hira community who are traditional
potters. The skill of pottery making is inherited by every person of this community and almost
every household earns livelihood on it. Pottery making has been the life line of these simple poor
potters of Hira community. Hence it is a natural pottery/terracotta craft cluster.

However, many of the women folk also inherit the skill of weaving which is a primary
cultural element of the Assamese society. One can see a traditional through shuttle loom looms
fastened to four bamboo posts under the open sky almost in every household of the area.
Weaving serves as alternative earning source during the lean season of pottery market.

2 IDENTIFIED LOCATION OF CLUSTER IN THE AREA

Among the three part villages of the Khatowal revenue village the concentration of Hira
community potters is only in the Niz-Khatowal village where pottery/terracotta craft works are
still practiced by people to earn a living and hence it is a natural craft cluster. The cluster has
every possibility to be converted into a terracotta artifact export oriented zone if the potter
artisans were mobilized in right direction along with development of the infrastructure.

3. A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE NIZ-KHATOWAL AREA

Area : 2.5 square km

Adult Population : 1015
Number of households : 361
Number of family directly involved in pottery : 150
Number of family indirectly involved in pottery : 170
Number of service holders family : 20
Road condition : The main road is black topped
Transport means : No bus service. Private Vehicles,
Cycle rickshaw, Auto Rickshaw,
By-cycles, Bullock cart etc. are the
means of transportation
Post office/ Telephone exchange :
Number of Primary Schools :
Number of Higher/Higher Secondary School :
Number of Govt. Health Centre :
Police Station :
Community hall :1

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4. GENERAL FINDINGS ON THE STATUS OF THE TRADITIONAL POTTERY

TERRACOTTA CLUSTER OF NIZ-KHATOWAL VILLAGE

A. SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS

Most of the traditional potters of the area live below poverty line (BPL) and lead a
miserable life. They are unorganized, dominated by the rich strata of the society, and exploited
by the intermediaries and village mahajans in many ways. Although the primary source of
livelihood of majority is traditional pottery works, many of the poor potter families are forced to
engage themselves as agro wage earner and or likes to earn a living, as they are either landless or
have a small land holding.

Those, who stick to pottery works also faces the problem of paucity of Potters Clay in the
locality. They have to collect the potters clay from a place called Jalah, at a distance of 10km
from their village, which is expensive, and time consuming. In addition, many a times they have
to bargain with goons while collecting potters clay. On the other hand, during rainy season it
becomes almost impossible to collect the clay. Therefore, the potters have to collect the clay
required for the whole year during the dry season only. Nevertheless, not every one of them can
afford to do so. Again, in the rainy season sun drying or burning the finished clay products
become a herculean task. Hence, apparently the rainy season becomes the lean period of the
pottery works and or business. This means low income compared to the labor input. Therefore,
some times the potters are forced to work as wage labour, do petty business, take advances from
the intermediaries, borrow money from the Mahajans or take up traditional weaving activities to
feed the family and gradually they enter into the vicious circle of usury and their economic status
does not improve.

Due to poverty and other social constraints, the school education scenario is not bright
— school dropout is very common and the rate is higher among the girls'. These forced dropouts
add to the economic burden of their respective families. It is also observed that a good number of
girls of the area remain unmarried only because of poverty. These illiterate and semi literate
unmarried women finding no other way take up pottery works and weaving to ventilate their
woes and despair as well as to earn for the family.

Although the quality of the pottery products is above average and the market response is
reasonable the business of the potters is not satisfactory as the production is not done
commercially in a organized way. Although there is a community work shed named Mrit Shilpa
Bhawan there is no co-operative effort for bulk production and to reap the benefits thereof. Even
there are no proper marketing channels and network for whatever is produced. Apart from some
stray instances, the potters do not sell the products in the market directly. Rather they sell their
products to the intermediary or outside marketing agents.

On the other hand, the potters have no knowledge of the cost inputs of the products. Even
they are not aware of the cost of labour involved in the production process. Consequently, they
fail to estimate the actual cost of the product and or to fix an optimum price to make reasonable
profit. Taking the advantage of their ignorance and poverty the intermediary or marketing agents
easily deceive and exploit them by paying low prices. Thus, their economic benefit is
marginalized and they remain as poor as before.

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B. PRESENT TECHNOLOGY IN USE AND STATUS OF THE POTTERY CRAFT

The existing traditional potters of the proposed project location are of Hira community
who traditionally make earthen articles using their hands and simple hand tools only. They never
use mechanical devices like potters wheel as their Kumar Community counterpart. The
technology in use is only the traditional knowledge and technique for preparing the Kumar Mati
(Potter’s Clay), and for shaping the pottery by hand. Interestingly the Hira community potters
first of all make clay shapes of different parts of a particular article they want to make and latter
assembles these parts to give the final shape of the desired article. Subsequently the finished
products are burnt using a pile of firewood. Therefore the production process is slow and bulk
production is both time and labour consuming. After burning is completed, the exterior of the
clay articles are coloured in red using traditional colour and sent to the market.

Although the expertise of these traditional potters is undoubtedly praiseworthy, the

traditional methods are technically detrimental to quality output and bulk production. On the
other hand, till today their production is confined only to traditional articles or utensils like-
Soru, Kerahi, Felai, Chaki, Motong etc. Consequently, these articles are sold only in the local
markets. The demand of most of these articles is more or less seasonal and hence the economic
return to their labour is not always assured. Even if the articles are sold, the earning is not
sufficient to meet the household expenses. Besides absence of a direct marketing network and
involvement of intermediaries the profit margin further lowers and the poverty of the potters
continue.

They are unaware of modern concepts of pottery/terracotta production. They have little or
no knowledge on designing, glazing and colouring and finishing of the pottery to create a better
market demand even locally. Not to speak of export market wherein the terracotta ornaments are
in great demand as people worldwide are now inclining to eco-friendly products. Hence, there is
not much renovations in their traditional designs or product range for a long period so far to meet
the changing taste of the consumers of the competitive market. This is also a major factor that
they fetch low price of the products.

All these adversity has compelled many of the potters to abandon their age-old tradition
of pottery/terracotta making or weaving and look for other income generating activities. It can
therefore be felt that if things goes like this a rich tradition with a significant economic prospect
will be lost forever within the next couple of years.

C. NEEDS IDENTIFIED

To alleviate poverty, to attain a sustainable economic development, and to preserve this

traditional pottery/terracotta a holistic approach should be adopted to meet the following needs.

1. TRAINING NEEDS

(i) Since most of the potters live below poverty line, and the production base is
haphazard and family centered it is not easy for them to develop. Hence, they must be
trained to organize themselves and work in groups. Forming of Self Help Groups (SHG)
and motivating them for co-operative pottery production activities may be a better
alternative.
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(ii) In addition, they must be trained on group dynamics and the advantages of
working in groups and the government facilities available for the SHGs.

(iii) The traditional potters need to be trained on modern mechanisms and techniques
of pottery/terracotta craft. Like automatic and semi automatic potters wheel, furnace and
use of hand tools. They also need training on designing, glazing, dyeing etc. with
emphasis on conceptual training on product diversification and fine finishing of products.

(iv) They also need training in cost analysis, price fixation, salesmanship, marketing,
entrepreneurship, and general management.

(v) Also, those youths of the potters family who are school dropouts and or otherwise
not interested at all in pottery craft may be imparted with training in other vocation such
as- plumbing, electrician, masonry, carpentry, screen printing, Consumer electronic
appliances repairing and maintenance, LPG gas stove repairing, scooter/motorcycle
repairing etc to generate self employment.

2. INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS

(i) Infrastructure like Common facility centre with tools and machinery for
preparation of Potters Clay, sun drying and furnace burning of the products,
should be developed. Individual work shed, may also be provided to the deserving
potters, terracotta artisans to increase the production base.
(ii) Medical facility centre etc. for the potters may be established to ensure their good
health to uphold consistency of production.
(iii) Communication and Marketing network are to be developed to make the business
easy and profitable.
(iv) Besides these, the educational and socio-cultural needs should be attended too.
.
5. RATIONALE OF ADOPTING AND DEVELOPING THE POTTERY / TERRACOTTA
CLUSTER

If this age old traditional pottery/terracotta industry has to be preserved and

developed to compete with the present competitive market as well as to improve the economic
condition of the potters/artisans a collective and organized effort is required to meet the market
demand as par changing taste of the consumers in terms of design and quality of the products. It
may be achieved only by introducing the use of different potter’s wheel and glazing techniques
and use of some improved hand tools for diversification and bulk production of pottery/terracotta
artifacts by reducing the production time and labour If it could be done, the area may be
transformed into a major pottery/terracotta production centre. It is also observed that the texture
and the eco-friendly quality of the products have tremendous potential to create demand in the
market especially in the terracotta ornaments sector. Well-designed and diversified
pottery/terracotta products should find a good share in the domestic market and most likely may
be exported. Although use of mechanized devices is not in the traditional blood of the potters of
the area it is believed that these user friendly technologies will be widely accepted to increase the
productivity without compromising on the quality. Thus, there is every possibility that the potters
attain economic self-sustainability and the area finds a prestigious place in the map of
pottery/terracotta craft.
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Similar things are already been happening in some other parts of the country where
commercial production of quality pottery and terracotta artifact is taking place. The products also
enjoy a good market share. Subsequently, the financial condition of the poor potters is on the
increase. Their products are even being exported to other countries that add dimension to the
traditional pottery/terracotta craft

Evidently this is possible in the Khatowal village too, if the potters are organized into a
cluster, motivated to become entrepreneur, provided training for skill formation in modern
techniques, trained in business and marketing concepts, provided facilities of existing marketing
network etc. through an integrated need based action plan.

6. NECTAR'S CONCERN:

North Eastern Centre For Technology Application And Rural Development (NECTAR)
being an NGO involved in handicrafts and entrepreneurship development activities has hunched
the potentiality of this pottery cluster of Niz-Khatowal village, and has taken up plans to develop
the cluster with support of DI &CC, DRDA and other development agencies of the govt. The
primary objectives of NECTAR in this respect are

(i) To organize the potters by forming SHGs.

(ii) To re-structure the pottery cluster and to revitalize the traditional practice of
Pottery / terracotta making to achieve commercial feasibility through enhancing
their skill and introducing mechanized devices.
(iii) To Change the mindset of the artisans by spearheading the thought process
towards community based group entrepreneurial activity and the profession as
well.
(iv) To diversify the production base by modifying the traditional technology and
methodology for better marketing of the products and economic empowerment of
the artisans.
(v) To train the potters in salesmanship, marketing, and general financial
management.
(vi) To develop a suitable marketing network.
(vii) To provide better and easily accessible health, educational and social security
services to the poor potters.

(Bhrigu Bhusan Goswami)

Secretary, NECTAR
Copyright © NECTAR