Bahari Exhibition: Responsible production and sustainable products

A three-day exhibition of sustainably made arts and crafts in Bangladesh highlighted the reasons why our domestic small handicraft businesses cannot flourish without a better social contract when it comes to consumerism. 

The term sustainability generally evokes the imagery of industries polluting the skies, landfills of trash and dwindling natural reserves, but we rarely talk about the consumer's part in all of this. We can discuss to death the pros and cons of capitalism, but one thing it truly allows you to do is to vote with your wallets. This was the theme underscoring all the stalls, speeches and the state of our domestic handicraft industries.

With such an innovative idea Shafia Shama owner of M/S Shama and her team came up with which others can apply in their business consortium.

Day one, on 31 March, was laissez-faire, both metaphorically and literally. The whole exhibition hinges on sustainable Bangladeshi arts and crafts industry that are eco-friendly and ethically produced domestically, as the entire supply chain takes place on our soil. 

Some common threads that reveal themselves are that the vast majority of these businesses are women-owned, a telling sign. Shafia Shama, who is perhaps the lead organiser of this exhibition (a title she would humbly deny) reminds us that during the pandemic a lot of businesses took major hits. "Take me for example," says Shama "I used to own a jute factory in Hazaribagh which had to be shut down for lockdown measures, the pandemic forced me to diversify into a different sector which is when I launched Studio Uran." 

The fashion house has been featured previously in our Mode section. 

"Sure the lockdown would funnel more demand to certain types of products, but items such as food and clothing have inelastic demand, so I moved most of my focus into my garments endeavours," she added. 

Photo: Abrar Faiyaz Niloy

She tells all of this with a matter-of-fact tone, asking for neither sympathy nor laurels. Shafia Shama is the rare breed of a businesswoman who can see the needle of opportunity in a haystack of chaos.

Jute Mama proprietor Farheen Khan's organisation has been operating for a year and a half and was started during the pandemic, this in and of itself should indicate the calibre of businesswomen that have united for this exhibition.

Khan said, "The pandemic gave us a lot of time for reflection. One of the things that occurred to me was that our modes of production and consumption are unsustainable. Just look at the kind of trash you see everywhere in our city; man-made fibres, petroleum-based products (polythene bags). These non-biodegradable products are degrading the environment." 

Khan advocates that we as a society make a concerted effort to use biodegradable packaging and reusable materials. She does lament one thing though, the demand for her products is higher internationally than domestically, ironic given that the entire supply chain is in our motherland, she attributes this to a lack of regulation from the side of the powers that be. 

She cites Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and other Western countries that have begun taxing one-time use bags and packaging and advocates that we follow suit. Not a far-flung dream, given that in rural areas and our own grandfathers used to have reusable grocery bags.

The use of single use polythene bags continues to run rampant in Bangladesh despite being banned by the government back in 2002.

"It's a systemic issue," puts Khan curtly "Availability must be decreased, new standards must be implemented, our behaviour and the very nature of the products we consume must be changed as well." Farheen Khan is one of those big picture analysts that the country has not lost to the 'brain-drain' of greener pastures. She isn't just some business owner trying to carve out a thicker profit margin, she possesses both a macro and micro level understanding of the modern nature of consumption and consumerism.

Farheen Khan's comments would prove to be prescient the next day as all her claims were repeated independently by Dr Nazneen Ahmed, Chief Economist of UNDP, who went into depth about the reasons why our domestic small handicraft businesses cannot flourish without a better social contract when it comes to consumerism, wasteful habits that propagate the collective attitude towards disposable goods and how education is perhaps the most powerful tool when it comes addressing the disease of consumption rather than treating the symptoms.

More from a pure consumer point of view, strolling the various stalls at the exhibition will catch your eye. Plush keyring toys made by JuteMama, formal chic work bags by Made in Bangladesh (MiB), a full range of Organikares products, there is something for everyone. 

DhakaYeah's stall at the exhibition got the most foot traffic unsurprisingly. If you look online you will see that the brunt of contemporary digital illustrations is borne on the backs of this anonymous art collective. They have the same problem as Farheen Khan, there is more demand for their products elsewhere than at home, this is a sad state of affairs. We should be proud of the products our country makes, you need only look to Japan to confirm this. 

Photo: Jawad Saif

DhakaYeah is perhaps the best art collective in town, actually, they are so good that they even managed to win a Pakistani award for Digital Art hosted in Lahore. No such recognition is yet forthcoming domestically. They were, by and far, the best stall in the exhibition because it exemplifies all the challenges and champions of the handicraft art industry and it was impossible to not purchase at least something (or three) that they had on offer. 

DhakaYeahs does the unthinkable in terms of art, it represents and romanticises urban culture, hitherto unseen in the art scene. The world's perception of Bangalee art, in general, is that of its rural areas. DhakaYeahs carefully curated artwork reminds us of the beauty of urban life in its vignettes of cityscapes and romantic gulleys. The art is definitely new, but the colour palette is as familiar as your favourite childhood candy.

You don't have to buy more expensive products to further your country, nor should you feel obligated to give up on all your affordable amenities. Sustainability can simply be, reviving the use of jute bazaar bags like the ones your father used and donating your clothes to NGOs rather than throwing them away.