What is the use of being members of an association? It won’t give us food. We hanged the rate list which was fixed by the association. We are afraid that the number of customers will decrease,” opine local artists of Narayanghadh bazaar.

Of course, the market is competitive these days. The customers forego quality and indulge in bargaining for the goods they intend to buy. In case an artist doesn’t agree, others become ready to do the work for less. “At least we have to do something for our survival or for the livelihood of our children, so we hang the list of the association hoping that customers will be attracted,” said Gagan Shrestha, an artist from Narayangadha.

What can the artists do? Questioned an old artist namely Bishnu Kumar Shrestha.

Shrestha says that notions such as Association and unity all are just for the sake of name. The artists are suppressed only due to weakness of the people holding the leading role in the Association, he added. He said that this is such type of profession in which even uneducated persons can do better.

“After the restoration of democracy in 1990, with the objective of strengthening the professional rights of the workers, so many associations and association were registered under the ministry of labour and transport management.

Commercial Artists Association of Nepal (CAAN) was born in 1996, says D B Bishwakarma, chairman of the association. He says that in the beginning the artists were looking so active, but slowly they gave up. The concerned body should have maintained a good coordination with its members. The letters consisting the required circulars of the association should have been despatched to district wise, but it could not be done.

Meanwhile, district secretary of CAAN Prakash Thapa has different opinion in this regard. He says, “The persons involving in the association have to understand their importance themselves. Arts itself is a profession of hard works; it can be done even in low investment. More hard work is needed in the profession. Since it is done even in low investment, the price of the work should be decided by the artists themselves. But such type of thought has yet to come in their minds.”