What is the issue?
- Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has threatened to sue Fabindia for misusing the trademark chakra without proper authentication.
- While the government is aggressively promoting Khadi, it is also important to nurture a private Khadi ecosystem for the sake of the artisans invovled.
What has the government done to promote Khadi?
- Both charkha and khadi have been associated inalienably with Mahatma Gandhi, and are powerful symbols of India’s struggle for Independence.
- While governments have been keen to ensure that the khadi brand is not used for private profit, the current dispensation has been especially enthusiastic.
- Notably, KVIC (which functions under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), was reconstituted in 2015 with additional powers.
- As more than 130 lakh people are employed in this sector, various government departments have been instructed to maximise Khadi use in a systematically.
- Khadi uniforms were proposed for Air India’s cabin crew and hotels run by “Indian Tourism Development Board” were to have Khadi bed-sheets.
- Stalls for selling khadi products at all government functions was planned, and Khadi was being promoted feverously as a “Fashion Statement”.
- The government is also working on promoting khadi overseas, and KVIC is said to be in talks with industry associations abroad to open franchises.
What exactly is khadi?
- Mahatma Gandhi popularised the charkha and indigenously produced cloth as a symbol of the Swadeshi boycott of foreign-made goods.
- Khadi is a fabric that is hand-woven from hand-spun yarn, and was initially thought as a means to provide employment for rural India.
- After Independence, KVIC was established by an Act of Parliament in 1956.
- The Act defined khadi as “any cloth woven on handlooms in India from cotton, silk, woollen yarn or a combination of these which is also hand-spun in India”.
- Since then, KVIC has been using the khadi trademark on its products and displays, but over time, many became oblivious of what Khadi actually meant.
- In 2013, the government notified “The Khadi Mark Regulations, 2013” for the purpose of authentication of genuine khadi.
- This mandated that all merchandise that is produced or marketed as khadi would have to bear the “Khadi Mark Tags and Labels” issued by the KVIC.
- Also, persons or institutions applying for Khadi Mark registration were to be subjected to specified sample tests for verification.
Which institutions were using the khadi tag without authorisation?
- Since 2014, KVIC found as many as 176 institutions that were violating the khadi trademark in some way or the other.
- Among them is Fabindia, which has emerged as the largest private platform for products that are hand-made with traditional techniques and skills.
- Most of the violators were single-outlet stores and retailers, and have predominantly stopped using the tag on receiving notices form KVIC.
- But Fabindia chain, whose application for KVIC was rejected, was found to be a repeat offender even after receiving multiple notices.
- The rejection rooted in the logic that Fabindia is a ‘for profit initiative’, which defeats the intention of the Khadi movement.
- As the company hasn’t refrained, a legal notice to sue Fabindia for 525 crores, has been initiated recently.
What are the concerns?
- As protecting poor artisans is the intention, it should ensure that all produce of such artisans get Khadi tagged, even if it is sold outside the government fold.
- Besides, the question of whether - regulating the cloth, also means regulating symbols like charkha, and the artisans behind it needs pondering.
- While the present dispute will be settled in courts, one needs to proceed form the recognition that Khadi as a brand belongs to the people.
- Khadi as a concept has been around from long before KVIC came into existence, and in a sense, is a generic term as “ayurveda” or “yoga”.
- But as KVIC approval is mandatory for the using the term “Khadi”, a new terminology needs to be evolved for hand-spun cloths outside KVIC’s ambit.
Source: Indian Express
