[This piece of article is provided by Ms. SONAM DHINGRA who is a prominent art teacher at City Vocational Public School, Meerut, by profession and an artist herself. She has done in-depth research on indian arts and crafts.]
Mithila paintings and women entrepreneurs are the complimentary for each other and can be mounted up for the economy of Mithila by making some improvements. Women, traditionally have been playing
a crucial role in the family as well as in the field of entrepreneurial areas also, but their contribution has not been duly acknowledged. These women are still to make tremendous progress in the manufacture of Mithila painting. In the present age of globalization where each and every economy of the world is giving emphasis on women empowerment which is not possible by creating employment opportunities for them but to motivate them to go for creating their own enterprise. Women have undergone a radical transformation from merely a homemaker to a dynamic multifaceted personality contributing to the socio-economic growth worldwide. Therefore, a more from family management to enterprise management may be easier than a move from paid employment to self employment.
Today, more and more women are seeking economic opportunity and self determination through enterprise creation and are well prepared to grab the opportunities of the multi-polar world. But at the same time they have to face a number of challenges which are required to be solved by making them and their family aware and attracting financial and moral support in this regard.
Through this creative art, women of Mithila express their desires, dreams, expectations, hopes and aspirations to the people. It can only be possible when everyone will be responsible for significant contribution to the entrepreneurial society.
It’s an attempt of the Indian state to empower the women of Mithila by providing a commercial outlet to their art which makes them financially self – sufficient. This feature has had some important impact on this art practice. The paintings made by the women are no longer only ritualistic in nature. Features of early modern technological lifestyle are also introduced by them. This has devitalised this essentially ritual art form. Also, there are facts and figures to show that the commercialization of folk painting has helped in the development of this drought-prone area. As one Harijan woman says,
“Children from our community had never been to school before, but now due to some money in hand and awareness due to art tourism, our children are getting educated.” Last but not the least, every household in the community has raised the demand for government intervention in the procedure of marketing and selling of Madhubani paintings.