The Chhattisgarh Handicrafts Development Board will hold a competition of State’s best handicraft items in Raipur for three days beginning December 22.
The short-listed three handicraft workers would be given the first prize of Rs25,000, second prize of Rs15,000 and the third prize of Rs10,000 respectively. All other artisans would be given cash prize of Rs3,000 each as incentive. The Chhattisgarh Government had been aggressively deploying financial resources for renovation as well as creation of new infrastructure facilities for promotion of training related to handicraft development, officials stated.
As a consequence, as many as 220 workshops and Office-cum-Warehouse buildings have been renovated at the cost of Rs34. 68 lakh in the State. This apart, about 193 new workshop buildings have been constructed at the cost of Rs54.83 lakh, officials informed. Under Integrated Handicraft Development Scheme of State Government’s Rural Industry Department, as many as 1130 beneficiaries have been benefited in previous financial year 2013-14. Officials informed that total 140 beneficiaries have attended the new ‘Weaving Training Session.’
An amount of Rs45.69 lakh have been spent on organizing the training programme. Under Skill Improvement Training Programme, nearly Rs3.60 lakh have been spent on 20 other beneficiaries. According to the officers, 44 handloom weavers have been provided with financial aid of Rs22 lakh, 210 advanced equipment worth Rs29.38 lakh and 276 supportive equipment worth Rs7.58 lakh. In the previous financial year, Rs50,000 were spent on promotion of schemes. Moreover, women entrepreneurs from Bastar and other remote regions of Chhattisgarh had set up their stalls displaying handicrafts and handlooms in the Chhattisgarh pavilion at 34th India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi had received huge response from foreign visitors, officials informed.
The fortnight-long fair which ended on November 27, was based on the theme ‘Women Entrepreneur’. The fair was open for traders and businessmen for first five days. During the business days, many tourists from foreign countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan visited the pavilion, inquired about the ‘Dhokra art’ of Chhattisgarh and showed interest in buying the handicrafts on wholesale. The pavilion also had a stall each on ‘Godna’ Print, Teracotta (clay art), iron craft and bell metal put up by the groups from Bastar. A stall by Pragya art, Raipur had various showpieces and wall paintings made up of paper mashe.