Rural women master artisans’ training begins

Tribune News Service

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Dehradun, April 7

Exim Bank, in association with the Purkal Stree Shakti Samiti (PSSS), has begun a six-month workshop aimed at training select 25 women master artisans based in villages in and around Purkal village near Dehradun , in creative and modern designs like patchwork, appliqué, quilting and embroidery handicraft items. The workshop, being first of its kind in the region, was inaugurated by N. Ravi Shankar, Chief Secretary, Uttarakhand, today .

PSSS, a non-government fair trade organisation, is working with the objective of empowering women of Purkal, a village in Dehradun. Since its inception, it has been working in the field of income-generation and welfare for women from marginalised and underprivileged section of the rural community. PSSS works with close to 50 SHGs (self-help groups) and supports 500 women artisans.

In order to help PSSS expand its presence in both domestic as well overseas market, essentially through better designing and packaging, the bank in partnership with PSSS, supports a 6-month workshop for select 25 women master artisans based in Purkal village. The proposed workshop will cover two areas, namely product development by providing inputs for modern designing of crafts and giving technical knowledge to women artisans on use of advanced machineries so that the production can be improved both in qualitative as well as quantitative terms. This workshop is expected to enable artisans to design quality products for both domestic and export market. This will, in turn, improve their income levels.

Speaking on the occasion, Debasish Mallick, Deputy Managing Director, Exim Bank, said that the objective of the workshop is to improve the quality of products for the export markets which would help the artisans in getting better income and also create additional employment opportunities. He said that Exim Bank has been continuously striving to promote exports from grassroots level. He highlighted that the value of handicraft exports can be significantly enhanced through improvements in quality aspects like designs, colour combinations and packaging, keeping traditional artwork of the country in tact along with suitable improvement in the design development. This will lead to better price realisation arising out of new products and hence increased exports. However, there is a greater need to work with like-minded organisations both in the private sector and the government, including producer companies, societies, trusts and clusters to achieve this objective.

The workshop is a part of Exim Bank’s initiatives to develop strong linkages between export development and poverty reduction, formalised under a specialised group, viz. grassroots initiative and development.