Fair Trade Producers

R.C. Marble Handicrafts Agra, India

RC Marble family Everyone has seen photos of the Taj Mahal in India. This incredible monument was carved by talented Indian stone craftsmen whose descendents still live and work in and around the city of Agra. R.C.Marble is a small company run by three brothers and their sons who can trace their ancestry back to those stone artisans who helped create what is India's most well known landmark. I was lucky enough to visit them at their workshops just outside the city of Agra this February.

R.C. Marble moved into their current workshop about four years ago. ASHA Handicrafts, Oxfam Ireland's export partner in India, helped fund this new building and the safety features included in it.

The stone R.C. Marble uses is gorarastone, which is related to marble. The stone is not native to the area immediately around Agra, but comes from neighbouring states - the pink gorarastone is from Uttar Pradesh and the grey stone is from Rajasthan. Some people refer to this stone as 'soapstone' because of the smooth finish that it has, but technically soapstone has a slightly different and much softer composition.

RC Marble cutting The stone comes by truckload in large blocks; it cannot be worked when wet so is stored in a special area outside the workshop which has a cover. Each stone must first be cut into the general shape of the item to be made. This initial cutting is done on a large saw built into the floor of the workshop. The sawing creates considerable dust and the new workshop has an extractor fan system which sucks away most of the dust and deposits it in a storage room outside. The artisans do wear masks when working on the saws.

Items are then carved, either using a small electric drill, or by hand with chisels and files, depending on the design. They also use a punch press for items of 'jali work' where the design is completely cut through the piece.

RC Marble inlay Some items are decorated with inlay - small, thin, individually cut and polished stones or mother of pearl. Inlay work is the most detailed of all the stone carvers' arts and the one which requires the longest time to learn. All of the inlay workers at R.C.Marble learned their craft from their fathers and grandfathers. It can take two to three years of constant practice to become really skilled at this craft.

Every piece is then polished individually to make it smooth and give it the characteristic shine and finish of gorarastone. Each item is actually polished three separate times using three different polishing wheels.

RC Marble polishing R.C.Marble employs 15 workers on a regular basis, and gives additional work to others when they have large orders. They sell about 80% of their products through ASHA Handicrafts who exports to Fair Trade organisations (like Oxfam Ireland) in Europe and North America. Fair Trade organisations pay a prepayment of 50% of the cost of their orders up front, and ASHA passes this prepayment on to their suppliers such as R.C Marble so that they have working capital for raw materials and don't have to borrow. ASHA's customers give regular orders so that there is constant work for the artisans.

RC Marble workers When I asked the artisans at R.C.Marble what Fair Trade meant to them, they said they are very glad to work for a company where they get more regular work than artisans who work with solely commercial workshops, and they get paid a better rate for their work. They also appreciate that ASHA has a special fund where they can get low interest loans to pay for their children's education - several of them have taken advantage of this. Some of the older children of the artisans have also attended ASHA's 'E-Academy' which offers free computer training.