A three-day unique handicraft exhibition-cum-sale ‘Karigar-Okhai’ is going to kick off on September 19 at G-town club. The exhibition will be organised by Urban Services, Tata Steel in collaboration with Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD). Since 2014, Urban Services, Tata Steel in collaboration with TCSRD is running a ‘Karigar-Okhai’ outlet in Jamshedpur.
The exhibition will showcase an extensive range of handicrafts and readymade garments prepared by women of Jharkhand as well as Gujarat. It will also provide an opportunity to the rural women and artisans, hailing from socially and economically marginalised communities, to earn a livelihood.
The Karigar shop was started by Urban Services, Tata Steel on February 6, 2002 at shop No 13/4, Bistupur market. An exhibition-cum-sales outlet for the small artisans, it is currently facilitating sales and marketing of handicraft items of the groups supported by them and their associates under CSR programmes.
Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development (TCSRD) plays a pioneering role in encouraging this handicraft art form popularised under the ‘Okhai’ brand name.
With the able support of TCSRD, over 350 women are making colourful and aesthetically unique pieces of appliqué work for commercial purposes that provide them with alternate sustainable sources of income and leads to economic empowerment.
The products so made are commercialised on a no-profit-no-loss basis.