Infrastructural support to the wood carving artisans..

s part of the artisan development program, SETU team visited our wood carving partner artisan group based near Bijnor, (U.P.) in the month of December 2018. The group is associated with us since many years and is engaged in making hand carved wooden products. Earlier, we had conducted skill upgradation workshop for the young artisans of the group, thus helping them becoming self-employed so that they can support their families.

Upon visiting, SETU team interacted with the artisans working with the group. Upon interaction, it came to light that they do not have all the required machinery for the production of wooden artefacts, in the absence of which the productivity was declining as a major portion of time & money was spent in getting the work done from outside. To get the wood cutting work done, the artisans had to send all the wood to another city, which is about 3 hours drive away from their native place. This also caused a lot of delay as many times, the wood sawers had long waiting queues…

Sensing the seriousness of matter, SETU team decided to support the group by sponsoring & installing required machinery at the work place so that all the work can be done smoothly at one place only. All the details of the wood carving process were discussed and the machinery required in the process were enlisted. The list of machine equipments sponsored by SETU is as follows:
• Wood sawing Machine for carving Puzzle boxes & other shapes – 2 in numbers
• Saw dust Pollution Control System for safeguarding artisan health.
• Silencer for Generator

The installation work was done in two phases. In the first phase, wood sawing machineries have been installed in March 2019. The Pollution control system and silencer for Generator would be installed by the end of April 2019.
The newly installed machineries have increased the productivity manifold. Feedback from the artisans is very positive. The artisans have benefited in the following ways by using the equipments sponsored by SETU:

• Drastic reduction in production time & increased productivity.
• Quality improvement as all processes are done in-house under controlled supervision..
• Cost reduction & increased profit margins.
• Reduction in man-power energy & drudgery.
• Increase in versatility and production range, leading to higher marketability.
• New employment opportunities for youth & regular artisans…
• Increase in self confidence of artisans… 🙂