Development of Handmade Paper Industry in India

Started by ganeshbala, Apr 20, 2009, 03:39 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ganeshbala

Development of Handmade Paper Industry in India

Introduction

"Handmade Paper is layer of entwined fibers held together by the natural internal bonding properties of cellulose fibers lifted by hands, sheet by sheet on moulds in suspension of fibers in water with or without sizing."

(The Dictionary of paper, American Paper and Pulp Association)

The Handmade Papermaking is a traditional industry of India. Innovation of papermaking was taken in 105 AD by China but there is a controversy on that issue. However, recent researches have given credit to India for this innovation of Paper from cellulose fiber even in third century B.C. The Handmade Paper Industry has been recognized as traditional craft of village industry under Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Act-1957". KVIC provides special assistance to this industry for the development of rural craft and artisan work. In India it has been developed as cluster based industry. The most effective clusters are situated at Kalapi(Uttar Pradesh), Sanganer in Jaipur(Rajasthan), and Mahaboobnagar( Andhra Pradesh). Apart from these clusters there are some small clusters spread in all over India.

The KVIC has developed separate programme for Handmade Paper (HMP) industry during last fifty years in the association with Khadi and Village Industries Board and other Khadi Institutions.

Development of Handmade Paper Industry by KVIC


Phase-I

A period of 1925-1953 &1955-56 is the first phase of development of Handmade Paper Industry. In the first phase KVIC itself was established by Govt. of India. The main objective of Phase-I was providing assistance to traditional kagazis (Traditional Paper Maker) in different production areas of Handmade Paper. In that period industry has small size of production and sales. The numbers of production units were less than forty and employees were not more than one thousand. It was era of craft, and that's why the industry became popular in next phase.

Phase-II


The second phase is a period of 1956-57 to 1966-67. In this phase Handmade Industry has got better position in production. The cooperative societies and registered institutions entered in this field through KVIC and KVIB's assistance programe. In this phase the numbers of units were increased. Production was more than rupees 39 lacks and employment generated five times as against first phase. At the end of this phase the actual numbers of working units were 149 and annual installed capacity was 3870 metric tons. It was the age of development in this phase all kagazis and artisans were motivated for producing craft paper and they innovated the different types of handmade paper using botanical fibers.

Phase-III, IV & V


Since 1967 -68 to 1991-92 We can divide it into three phases. The period of 1967-68 to 1976-77, 1977-78 to 1986-87 and 1987-88 to 19991-92 were III, IV & V phases respectively. In all the above phases hand made paper industry was flourished and got good sales position. In the period of 25 years (1967-1992) of development the size of industry became large, more than 350 production units were established in India in different states and 7000 employees / workers directly and indirectly involved in to this.

Phase-VI

The sixth phase of development was the period of 1992-93 to 1998-99. This was an age of accelerated growth of individual and private entrepreneurs. In this phase KVIC and other developmental agencies concentrated on research and development of hand made paper industry. In this era KVIC started survey and study of international market and domestic market and organized workshops, seminars and exhibition of hand made products. Government of India organized UNDP project on this industry titled Strengthened the handmade paper industry in India (1991-9Cool. UNDP-KVIC-Project emphasized at consumer behaviour and value addition in hand made paper industry. At the end of sixth phase this industry had more than 415 production units in India and the production grown up to Rs 30 carores and generated employment for 10,000 skilled and unskilled people.

Achievement of Handmade Paper Industry

In 1953 this industry was having 35 -40 units for production but today after half century hand made paper industry is having more than 3000 production units and increase of 35 times (1991 Rs 6 millions to Rs 210 millions in 1999-2000) recorded in hand made paper industry and its value added items. The Handmade Paper Industry has provided gainful employment to around 18000 direct and indirect people today. Rural artisans are benefited through this industry.

The handmade paper units are scatter throughout the country with concentration most in the Kalapi (Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh), Sanganer (Rajasthan), Pune (Maharastra), Kurukshetra (Haryana), Mahaboobnagar (AndhraPradesh) and some clusters are in West Bengal. The production capacity of the units ranges from 50 kg to 700 kg per day. Kalapi is main cluster of handmade paper production and its value added products. This cluster has more export oriented units. Today more than 60 production units are working. Registered institutions, co-operative societies, entrepreneurs and individual artisans are running their units. The capacity utilization of Handmade Paper Industry stands at 60-62 percent.

Marketing of Handmade Paper

The marketing of handmade paper is different than any other goods and products. In spite of, so many qualities and attraction could not reach at the optimum level of its market share. Still in this global era the handmade paper industry does not have systematic and planned marketing strategies for its promotion at a wider level. The wide publicity about the use of handmade paper and its promotion activities will surely increase its acceptability and people habit to use it frequently. It has cyclical effect on the overall industry like acceptability increases its uses or demand which leads to more employment generation as well as increase in the income level of factors of production. The cost of production will be decreases because at large level of production industry can obtain large production economies and technical up-gradation in the product and this will certainly increases quality of product. In this present scenario customer are more quality conscious. Industry must know the customer's preferences, their perception about the products and its uses. In customer survey we have got few factors which influence the consumer's behavior for handmade paper products:

1. Quality of products
2. Price
3. Multiple uses
4. Availability
5. Durability
6. Advertisement and awareness
7. Substitute goods etc.

The handmade paper industry can produce variety of papers and its value added products but due to lack of awareness the demand of all varieties is not sufficient at various stages. Many countries like Philippines, Japan, Korea etc are producing handmade paper in different varieties on the basis of colors, shades, thickness, smoothness, size etc. To the limited extent the people are recognizing this paper for eco-friendliness.

Market of Handmade Paper

The handmade paper industry has its own reputation for craft paper as well as its converted products. Some HMP products have very god demand in the market like carry bags, albums, stationery items, gift items, packaging items, drawing papers, greeting cards, invitation cards, business cards, miscellaneous fancy and decorative items etc. The drawing paper produced by industry has a unique demand. The hand made paper industry is having a demand of 10,000 to 12,000 tones per year. The major consumers of handmade paper are, Govt. Offices, Hotel Industry, Publishers, Printing Press, Craftsmen, Export Agencies, etc.

pradeep prem

many handmade paper for crafting product and it is old
this handmade should be used for craft item,printing press,publisher,govt. offices etc are used