Folk arts means of sustainable rural economic development?

I was told about a toy town called  called Channapatna by my friend some time back. A visit to the Cauvery emporium in Brigade road, ignited my curiosity and I decided to pay a visit. I took one amongst the plethora of buses available from KSRTC bus stand.My friend had given me the contact details of  an artist there. I had seen some of the artecrafts in the cauvery emporium. But the sheer variety and beauty of some of the items in his workshop blew me away. The variety and ingenuity of the some of the toys is unbelievable.The toy making process ensures minimal  wastage of wood. The colours are made of vegetable dye and perfectly safe for children.Recently I read a report that most of the toys sold in India have lead paint on them. Even toys from well known manufactures like fisher were known to have them. Rather than buying such toys we would be better off  exploring such handicrafts. It would be environmentally and economically safer. The toys cost very little as compare to toys from fisher.

Apart from toys the workshop also contained many utlity items like fruit baskets, key holders etc.
The most intriguing craft work were the wooden inlays. These are wooden portraits. But instead of colour they use pieces of wood  cut into various shapes to form the portrait. Imagine visiting your sister for raksha bandhan next time. Gift her a wooden inlay of your childhood photo. She would be thrilled to receive this instead of a box of Celebrations from Cadbury.  It would also be cheaper.

India is filled with such artisans. Many of these arts are dying a fast death. These arts can form unique gifting ideas. Patronising these art forms will help us sustains these arts, as well as create more jobs in rural India. If people in villages/small townships can find sustainable jobs, they will not have to come to the cities and we wont have parties like shiv sena