The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) organised an awareness seminar on necessary compliances in handicrafts sector and launched a Guidance Handbook for the Handicrafts Exporters of India — Socio legal Standards in 11 regional languages at Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhawan on January 18.
SS Gupta, development commissioner (handicrafts) was the chief guest of the seminar. The seminar was attended by RK Malhotra, chairman-IEMl, Prince Malik, member, COA EPCH, Rakesh Kumar, executive director, EPCH and host of other prominent member exporters. The experts present during the seminar included Dr Tamanna Chaturvedi, assistant professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi and Dhruv Sahai, senior expert (compliance) of M/s Sentio Advisory and interacted with the participants, wherein over 75 member exporters were present.
Kumar stressed on the significance of following the international compliances in order to sustain the export business. He further added that all necessary compliances like health and safety measures, child labour, contract labour, employees PF, employees state insurance, Factories Act etc must be complied with by the handicrafts exporters to maintain a competitive edge in the international market.
The faculty members made a detailed presentation on health and safety measures and other important compliances required by the handicrafts sector. Gupta informed that the book has been published in eleven regional languages which are English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Assami, Bangali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil in order to disseminate the message of the compliance upto the remotest corner of the country.
Chaturvedi informed that the necessary compliances in handicrafts sector is the only way to enhance their competitiveness in the international market Dhuruv Sahai, who has edited and compiled the book shared the participants about the contents of the book and its relevance in guiding the handicrafts manufacturers in achieving higher social compliance and labour standards.
Sahai also informed about the need of fire safety, health safety norms, medical facility, machine safety, electrical safety, chemical safety, hazardous material storage, personal protective equipment that are required to be used in the manufacturing units. The chief guest in his concluding remarks expressed satisfaction over the deliberations and hoped that with the compliance measures and safeguards available in the country, the prospects of increased exports in the future looks promising, however, the message of compliance is required to be percolated to each and every corner of the country.
Meanwhile, the exectuive director, EPCH further shared that simultaneously an awareness seminar was also being organised in Kolkata on ‘Understanding the Procedures of Custom Clearance of Export & Import cargo, Wild life Pre-shipment Inspection and Drawback Claims’ on January 18 wherein over 40 participants were present.
