Cubby and the disappearing toymakers

Cubby is a multicoloured bear about six inches high He comes in a biodegradable cardboard box and is made from hale pronounced halay wood a tinder stock which grows wild in parts of Karnataka He really is most at home with children one to two years old they take him apart ring by ring till all you have is a bear head on a pole Then they put the rings back Again and againCubby is really popular outside India with fans in Japan the USA Germany and the UK Kids love the clean primary colours and the smooth lac finish is like satin to their fingers Cubby is completely cute and literally edible mdash hale wood requires no chemical treatment it gets seasoned by sunlightThe colours are all nontoxic allnatural vegetable dyes Maya Organic the NGO behind the bear is a member of the World Fair Trade Organization and very conscious about staying sustainable and delivering high qualityCubby is one of the dozens of toys and lacware products made by the 30 or so workers at Maya Organics little factory in Channapatna about 15 hours drive from Bengaluru Hes the star of the show easily selling about 2200 units a year for R565 eachThe R125 lakh Cubby brings in might be a big deal for a little bear but Maya Organic trying to secure the best livelihood they can for the artisans is barely staying afloatMubarak Pasha 30 a toymaker with Maya Organic could push out about 75 Cubbies a month worth a little over R42000 if he did nothing elseThe NGO focused on creating a reliable income for artisans like him assures him a takehome salary of Rs 15000 but its unlikely hell be earning more than that anytime soonI am instantly all ears This is the heartland of crushing poverty and I am in the presence of people for whom living every day on a knifes edge is normal reality One wageearners death a single cancer a bad storm or a road accident would collapse their lives like a house of cardsThere are four faces in front of me in this brightly painted tubelit room mdash Mubarak his father wife and recently married sister A 6monthold is caterwauling nearby Two other children 9 and 7 are brought in strike shy poses and leaveHow do you feed seven people on Rs 15000 sending two of them to school ensure nutritious food for a newborn and a respectable marriage for two sisters How do other toymakers manageThey dont Nearly every toymaking family here is devastated by deep debt No one wants to send their children to a government school which are described as bereft barren places with disinterested teachers and hardly any children But keeping a child in a private school could easily cost R20000 a year Or R40000 if like Mubarak you have two childrenAlready drowning in rising water the artisans next stop is the money lender Mubarak chose to send his children to the desolate government school mdash but only because they needed the moneylenders loan to provide decent weddings for his two sistersThe interest rates are merciless mdash the Pasha family pays R5000 each month on every lakh rupees Oh and the loan may not be repaid in instalments so they must keep shelling out R5K until theyve saved R1 lakh out of the wretched R15000 they can barely survive onA highway sign screams Welcome to Channapatna Indias Toy Town as you enter Whatever you imagine a toy town should look like Channapatna will let you down There is no toy museum no toy street no giant toys in the public square It might dawn on you that there are hardly any toymakersNasir a lacware master craftsman who left the profession to sell crockery instead estimates that there might not be more than 700 or so people still left making toys in Channapatna That number was estimated to be 6000 back in 2006 Today theyre rolling beedis driving autos keeping accounts You would not believe that these artisans were torchbearers of a tradition started by Tippu Sultan who brought in master craftsmen from Persia to train local craftsmen The World Trade Organization protects Channapatnas toymaking as a GI geographical indicationExcept that with the toymakers disappearing by 2000 Indias toy town may well be no more than a ghost town where colours once danced and children squealed with joyYou can buy your child a Cubby here mdash httpsmayaorganiccomshop12yearscubbyOr buy three Youll be giving another toymaker a reason not to go wash dishes in a restaurantHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcom Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates