Varanasi: The parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been gifted with the first special handicraft mega cluster of the country with a fund of Rs. 31 crore to benefit 21,000 artisans of different crafts.

Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani announced the project at the Dastakar Chaupal for handicraft artisans of Varanasi organised at the Cultural Complex, Chowkaghat on October 16. She also launched the programme of ‘Guru-shishya parampara’ (teacher-taught tradition) for seven local crafts nominating seven master craftsmen as gurus on the occasion.

Addressing the function, she said that the main objective of the initiative is to promote and preserve the traditional crafts and improve the living condition of people associated with these crafts. Under this project a baseline survey of craftsmen will be conducted. It will be followed by distribution of identity cards and tool-kits to the identified craftsmen, training and market linkage of the products. Besides, the artisans will be facilitated with credit facility and free insurance scheme.

The special mega cluster was introduced for seven crafts including Zardoji, Gulabi Meenakari (pink enameling), wooden toys and craft, soft stone craft, terracotta, glass beads, and hand block printing. The gurus (master craftsmen) of these crafts including Godawari Singh (wooden craft), Kazim Raza (Zardoji), Kunj Bihari Singh (Guabi meenakari), Shiv Pujan (soft stone craft), Ramadhar Prajapati (terracotta), Suresh Kumar (glass beads), and Mahesh Kumar (hand block printing) will train the artisans of respective crafts.

An exhibition of handicraft was also held on the occasion. Earlier, a two-minute condolence was observed for the persons killed in the stampede on October 15. Later, Irani went to Kashi Vishwanath temple to offer prayer before leaving from Delhi.

Source: Times of India