In Nimati Bhitor Kokila Gaon of Assam’s Jorhat District the Kumar community has managed to keep their centuries-old pottery tradition alive. The 200-year-old art tradition has served as a primary source of livelihood for the Kumar community.
There are around 120 families in the Bhitor Kokila village and despite the challenges they are preserving their traditional profession of pottery. Mitali Kalita, resident of the Bhitor Kokila Kumar village said, ‘I’ve been a part of this village for eight years since my marriage, where 120 families reside. Traditionally, women here create utensils from clay, while men support us by collecting the clay. After we craft the utensils, the men help refine their shape by burning them. Finally, the men take our pottery products to the market for sale. Our village has been preserving this pottery tradition for around 150-200 years’.
The Kumar community, renowned for crafting clay utensils, is facing a grim reality as traditional livelihood that sustained them is fading away given the challenges they face while procuring the soil to practice pottery.
‘We have been engaged in this art for several years, and our family has been in the pottery business for around 200 years. Our location near the River Brahmaputra provides us with the suitable soil needed for making pottery. However, our pottery market has been declining daily. If this continues, we’ll have to find alternative livelihoods’, says Pabitra Kalita, a resident of the Kumar village, whose family has been in the pottery business for around 200 years.
Pottery being a traditional profession for the Kumar community, it is also a collective effort and the labour is divided among women and men where the former shapes soil into raw pots and the latter solidifies with the help of fire. However, with the uncertainty of sustaining their traditional profession, many have moved to alternative jobs to earn a living.
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