The average monthly income of artisans from a host of West Bengal districts has almost doubled in the last one year, thanks to the Rural Crafts Hubs, a state government inistiative.

The department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and textiles and UNESCO that had taken up a joint initiative of developing 10 Rural Craft Hubs of West Bengal at 11 locations in nine districts covering has employed 3,000 rural handicraft artists since September 2013. The average monthly income of artisans from Paschim Medinipur, which is famous for Patachitra, stood at Rs 10,000 against Rs 4,000 in 2014. Dokra artisans from Bardhaman took home Rs 4,140 as against Rs 2,300 a month only in 2014. Dokra artisans from Bankura too doubled their income from the Rs 4,000 they drew every month in 2014.

The Rural Craft Hub of Bengal was also selected by the UNESCO to showcase their artwork in Paris in 2015. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has considered the UNESCO recognition as the success of efforts to spread rural crafts of Bengal across boundaries.

Apart from the existing Sitalpati, Clay doll making, Kantha stitching, Terracotta art that the artisans practise there is going to be five more new art to be added to the list. The first in the new series would be the masks of Bengal under the Biswa Bangla initiative. “There would be 15 new kinds of masks from different parts of Bengal all with a history and story of its own, some of which are rabankata mask, chhau dance mask of Purulia, gilded masks from Kushmundi, masks of bagpa dance and many others,” said Partho Kar, Chief Consultant at Biswa Bangla.

“The project has been a significant contributor in building capacity , creatuing direct market linkage, exposure to national and international market, making the villages as cultural destinations and strengthening grass root entrepreneurship,also helping them getting rid of any middle,” Rajiva Sinha, Principal Secretary , Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and Textile. 

Source: The Economic Times