Univ to save crafts facing extinction
NewDelhi:There may soon be a university for artisans and craftsmen where they get formal degreesfrom bachelors to doctorateto show for their skills.Speaker Meira Kumar has pitched for a university for the working class to save traditional knowledge and skills which are facing extinction.
She has taken up with UPA government the idea of labour university catering to the class which is repository of high skills but does not have university degrees.
It will be a university for the working class and artisans.I have taken it up with the government and am hoping for a positive response, she said.Sources said a green signal to the proposal was likely.
The concept is to put traditional knowledge and craftsmenship in a structured and formal learning centre.It will be without the mandatory requirement of a degree for a teacher to teach there but will fetch the students degrees for what they have learnt.
We have a fabulous tradition of beautiful crafts wood,leather,wool,silk be it ancient India or medieval period or modern era.But a cloud hangs over their survival as everything has become degreecentric.There is knowledge beyond reading and writing.Why cannot a master-weaver become a teacher of that art, the speaker said.
Kumar said even masons have a place in society.We have to restore their dignity.Our professionals go abroad but so do our masons.It is because the latter dont get importance here,so they are not treated well outside too, she said.A degree to a craftsman will not only give him dignity but also spur the new generation to take up traditional occupations.We have to give dignity to these occupations so that they can be preserved, she said.