Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli has inaugurated an exhibition hosted by Gramin Hastkala Vikas Samiti here on Friday. “The exhibition would go a long way in promoting small scale industry and self employment,” he said. He also appreciated the initiatives to provide market for regional handloom. The exhibition cum sale is open from June 12 to June 21 from 11 am to 9 pm at Hotel Madhuban, Dehradun.
The artisans from all over India have come to Dehradun to exhibit their ethnic weaves and traditional pure silk and cotton products. The Gramin Hastkala Vikas Samiti founded by a group of artisans, designers, social activists, academics and environmentalists is engaged in promoting exquisite traditional skill, cotton and creations of the weavers and encouraging them to be contemporary and economically relevant.
More than 100 designers and weavers are part of this year’s exhibition which includes Uppadas, Banaras silks, Gadwals, Dharmavaram, Jamdanis, Jamawars and Sambalpuris. Artisans from 14 handloom weaving states, including Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal aside from the designers from metros working in collaboration with the weavers are showcasing more than 1,50,000 variety of their work here.
One of the organisers of Weaves of India, Jayesh Kumar Gupta said that the main social objective of the handloom exhibition is to promote weavers and encourage and provide a market to the handloom industry. “We have conducted over 150 exhibitions from its inception in 1997 in 25 cities across India. Through these exhibitions, we have been able to create good market for the weavers. Besides, the handloom woven ware are sent to places where exhibitions are not feasible,” he added.