Babel, SudhaACHARYA, SWATI2020-09-162020-09-162019Acharya S. And Babel S.https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810151379An Exploratory Study on Utilization Pattern of Camel Leather and Problems Faced by the Artisans of RajasthanRajasthan camel leather artisans are still limited by the use of traditional method i.e. manually processed, manufactured and embellished. From the last four decades there has been change in trend of camel leather products in terms of raw material used, change in tools, machines, design and colour used. The present study was undertaken to find out the utilization pattern of camel leather and problems faced by the artisans. It was conducted in the Bikaner, Barmer, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur districts of Rajasthan on the basis of concentration of camel leather artisans in the region. From each districts three areas were selected purposively which were dominated by camel leather workers. The sample of respondents constituted of sixty taking, fifteen from each of the four identified districts, including those who were involved in camel leather work directly or indirectly. Personal interview and questionnaire techniques were used for getting information from the respondents. The analysis of data was done using frequency and percentage distribution. The profile of respondents revealed that 66.67 per cent of the respondents in Barmer followed by 47 per cent of the respondents in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur were in age group of 45-60 years. Education qualification of the respondents was quite unsatisfactory as majority were illiterate and lived in joint family setup with 5-8 family members. Camel leather work belonged to the reserve caste categories or scheduled castes which includes Regar, Jingar, Khatri, Gujar and the minority community i.e. Muslim. Different types of embellishment used by respondents are applique, carving, crystals, embossing, punching and embroidery with cotton, golden and silver zari threads. 108 The study depicts that after declaring camel as state animal the condition of camel breeders of Rajasthan is becoming worse day by day as breeders are unable to sell the natural products obtained from the camel housed and brought by them. The findings also revealed different problems faced by the artisans which were: lack of market, raw material supply, high cost of raw material, time constraint, lack of interest among family members and finance. The root cause for unwillingness of artisans and family members to pursue the family occupation is due to social status of worker’s that is still not endorsed by the society with low price of products, increased use of chrome tanned leather, buffalo leather, rexine, challenge to modify the products according to modern tastes and low remuneration. This indicates that artisans should be given proper incentives, trainings and facilities for promoting the utilization of camel hides.enThesis