Recently, the Union Government awarded Padma Shri to C.V. Raju of Andhra Pradesh in the art category to honour the Etikoppaka wooden toy craft.

A farmer-turned-craftsman has his origins in Etikoppaka itself. He has been involved in promoting toy crafts and the usage of natural dyes.

Etikoppaka is a small village on the banks of the Varsha River located close to the Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. The name Etikoppaka is congruent with beautiful wooden art crafts and lacquer colours. They are traditionally known as Etikoppaka Bommalu. The village is actually very famous for it's toys made of wood. They are called lacquer toys because of the lacquer coating. The toys are made out of wood and are coloured with natural dyes coming from organic sources. While making the Etikoppaka toys, lac, a colourless resin-like substance from insects is used. Already prepared vegetable dyes are mixed with the lac during the process of oxidation. The end-product obtained is rich and coloured lacquer. These toys are exported all over the world.

These toys in it's early development models, were only used by children for play activities. The natural dyes used in them made them both safe and durable for use. The wood derived to make these toys is devoid of any toxic or heavy metal items. They later diversified into multiple uses. They can be used either as decoration items, utility items, and even gift items. Toy varieties include spinning tops, rattles, and animal figures. Etikoppaka boxes are also used for storing precious things and items of sacred importance.

The artist involved has won several awards from the UNESCO CCI Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts and so on.

The town of Etikoppaka where these toys are designed has helped the town to gain recognition as the 'toy village' of India. These toys have obtained their GI tag under the Handicrafts Category in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

This not only makes these toys environmentally friendly and sustainable but also rightly structured for child recreation purposes.

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Reference:

• journalsofindia.com
• vajiraoias.com