Maharashtra tribal artists to be compensated for missing paintings

Paintings worth ₹20.79 lakh displayed at an exhibition in Malaysia in 2018 were allegedly lost

After waiting for compensation from the State government for over three years after its Tribal Development Department (TDD) allegedly lost tribal artists’ paintings worth ₹20.79 lakh displayed at an international exhibition in Malaysia in June 2018, the department has finally issued directions to compensate the affected artists.

The TDD on June 18 wrote to the Commissioner of the Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Pune to contact the artists and seek information from them on the valuation of the lost paintings. “After inspecting the total number of lost artifacts and its exact amount, the artists be paid the required amount,” said the letter sent to TRTI.

The Hindu on June 15 had reported on how tribal artists were being made to wait for three years for the sums involved.

The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts had organised the 16th World Indian Festival-2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between June 9 to 17, 2018. The State’s TDD had displayed handmade products and paintings from tribal artisans, for which a number of officials from the department travelled to Malaysia along with the artists. On their return, the artists found that several of their paintings were missing.

Rajendra Maraskolhe, president, Organization for Rights of Tribal, Nagpur who has been fighting for the artists to receive compensation, said that the new orders were clear directions to the TRTI. “However, we will be following up on the entire process as artists have already been waiting for more than three years,” he said.

A meeting was called in November 2018 as the artists had neither received payment nor their paintings. According to the minutes of the meeting, attended by senior officials from the TDD, it was decided to take action against two organisations — Agenda Suriya and Purvi Fashion — and to write to the Indian Consulate in Malaysia to take action against SAG Logistics, which was responsible for the transport of the boxes. It was also decided to take a “positive decision” on compensating the artists who had lost paintings worth lakhs of rupees. These artists were also to receive priority in future exhibitions.

The June 18 letter said that the Export Promotion Council For Handicrafts and the Malaysian-South Asia Chamber of Commerce had been asked to black list the two organisations.