SA can learn art of work from India

THE SOON-to-be-released Bollywood film Sui Dhaaga (Needle and Thread) is inspired by the government’s Made in India campaign.

The film sheds light on the life and struggle of artisans, who ensure their art of embroidery doesn’t die.

It opens with the aimless Mauji (played by Varun Dhawan), who is happy doing menial work until his wife Mamta (Anushka Sharma) inspires him to regain his self-respect and start his own business.

Mauji picks up his old sewing machine and begins his journey towards self-employment, as his wife helps him expand it into a small-scale hand-loom industry.

It’s a story about going from being unemployed to being self-employed.

India, which has the second-largest population in the world with millions of mouths to feed and very little help from the government like grants for senior citizens, has a policy of developing smallscale cottage industries to help families survive.

In South Africa, the unions and labour relations laws such as the minimum wage scale are all millstones around the neck of progress.

It might surprise many people to know that Indian exports go beyond agricultural produce. They also include human expertise.

It is well known that India is the fifth-largest economy in the world and despite being a nuclear power and developing its own space programme, it does not wait for handouts like spoilt South Africans. It respects the dignity of human labour, no matter how menial.

JAYRAJ BACHU Clare Estate