Before the advent of the plastic era, clay products used to adorn the people’s home but the gradually conventional clay products lost their charm and plastic products gradually dominated the markets.
“Efforts are now on to get back the lost identity of the potters, artisans and craftsmen associated with clay crafts and for this, work has been started to establish Maati Kala Micro Common Facility Centres across the state,” a government official said.
The results of the efforts of the UP government were seen this Deepawali when over 10 lakh diyas (earthen lamps) were sold, he said and added that the government had started other schemes to give a new direction to the craftsmen associated with clay craft trade.
“To promote clay crafts, training was imparted to potters through Maati Kala Skill Training Programmes (MKSTP) and financial assistance was also made available to potters, artisans and craftsmen to make them self-reliant under the Mati Kala Scheme,” the official said.
As many as 39,505 families of craftsmen were identified by the government and out of them, 24,000 families were allocated revenue lease for making arrangements of raw material. Along with this, modern tool kits were also made available to artisans to help them in creating designer clay products, he said.
The official said that the government also helped potters, craftsmen and artisans in getting financial assistance and under the Mati Kala Scheme, 1,415 potters applied for loans.
“The banks gave loans of Rs 265.93 lakh to 142 beneficiaries. Besides, loans of Rs 98.03 lakh have also been disbursed to 71 units,” he said.
As many as 1,402 potters have been provided training under the MKSTP and till date over 2,000 beneficiaries have been given training for operating modern machines and tools besides entrepreneurship development training.