By : Rajeev Jain : India's huge bio-diversity and variety of agro-climatic conditions sets the stage for variety of agricultural products as well as uniqueness on account of local resources and skill set, especially in rural sector. Indian farmers and rural artisans have diverse expertise to produce textile, handicrafts and other traditional products. e.g. Banarasi Sari and Litchi of Muzaffarpur. Now, what is a matter of concern is that the producers of these products have not been able to get the premium for uniqueness of their products when compared with the similar products sold from other regions and countries. As a result of this, original farmers are deprived of an opportunity to leverage its uniqueness in terms of quality and commercial gain.
One of the effective ways of leveraging unique identity of products is to obtain Geographical Indications (GI), which is an Intellectual Property Right (IPR). GI identifies a "product" originating in a certain region where a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of the product is essentially attributed to its geographical origin. A GI should be able to indicate the geographical origin of the products, either directly (like Darjeeling) or, indirectly (like Basmati)
Unlike other IPRs, GIs are publicly owned by the legal organization created by the artisans/ producers of the concerned products. Producers of similar products in other geographical regions are excluded from using the GIs to prevent illegitimate entities from free riding on the reputation of the protected products.
GI also conveys an assurance of quality initiative & distinctiveness, for which the consumer and traders are generally willing to pay premium amount for the products. GIs can therefore be commercially leveraged to enhance the income of the producers / artisans involved in production of the unique products.
Although India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registrations & Protections) Act 1999, poor farmers & artisans are generally not aware of the benefits of GIs and the procedures for obtaining GI registration for their products. In the absence of GIs protection for the unique regional products the producers and artisan are unable to use legal remedies for preventing producers in other regions from free riding on the reputation of their distinct product. In most of the cases they are also not equipped to abide by legal hassles necessary for filing the GI applications.
Most of the producers of the products suitable for GI registration in India are in rural areas, have limited education and belong to poorer strata of the society. They severely lack resources and the capacity to document how uniqueness of their products is attributable to its geographical origin- the basic requirement for GI registration. Left to poor farmers, it is extremely unlikely that the producers of potential GI product would be able to take advantage of Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act 1999. As a result they may also lose the opportunity of commercially leveraging their products for obtaining higher income.
With an objective of enabling poor producers and artisans communities for seeking GI protection for their unique products with distinct characteristics, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in collaboration with some of the international organizations have implemented many intervention for GI awareness.
As a result of Interventions by government, producers and artisans groups have filed the applications for GI registration of some products, like, Banarasi Saris, Pipli Applique Crafts of Orissa and Lucknow Chikankari. Background work has commenced for facilitating GI registration of Sahi Litchi of Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur silk fabrics.
A movement for sanitizing State Governments and other stakeholders about the benefits of GI registration, legal aspects and procedures of registration and using GI tool for brand-building and leveraging it for commercial gains is urgently required. There is a strong need to bring together and forge a relationship between state Government officers, legal experts', associates and producers without which all of us are losers.
Appropriate strategies to deal with the aforesaid challenges, among others, may go a long way in exploiting the commercial and socio - economic potential ingrained in GIs. A careful planned strategy for the medium and long-term is the need of the hour
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By : News Team
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