Trivendra Singh Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand felicitated the team of Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts for skilling the artisans of last Indian Village-Mana at Indo China border during programme organised by Swami Vivekanand Health Mission, New Delhi. Vijay Kaushal Ji Maharaj, Ram Lal , Krishan Gopal, Suresh Soni, Deputy Head’s of RSS and Rakesh Kumar, Director General – EPCH were also present on the occasion.
Rakesh Kumar, Director General – EPCH said that EPCH’s initiatives to provide complete hand holding to the artisans of Mana Village has been duly felicitated today. Elaborating further, he said the product produced in Mana village lacked new designs and product adaptation leading to lesser selling opportunities and also migration of the artisans from the native place. The items traditionally produced at Mana Village included raw wool products like Pankhi Shawl, Khes, woolens etc. EPCH during last edition of IHGF-Delhi Fair Autumn held in October, 2019 had taken initiative to bring the artisans of Mana village to participate in the fair for which a team of designers including master craftpersons from Barmer and Jaipur were deputed well before the show to Mana village so that a new products as per International trends can be developed into high fashion items such as garments and accessories to showcase during the fair. The product developed by artisans of Mana village with the help of master craftpersons of Barmer received a very positive response from the visiting overseas as well as domestic buyers.
EPCH is also undertaking skill, Design development, Infrastructure creation, marketing linkages thus providing both backward as well as forward linkage to the artisans of Mana village. The entire activity is carried out in association with SVHM (Swami Vivekanand Health Mission) and with support of O/o Development Commissioner Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India.
The complete handholding of artisans in designing, marketing, backward forward linkages etc. of Mana Village which is situated at altitude of 12000 ft high in Uttarakhand, Chamoli District will bring back the population migrated to cities and increase the local sales as well as exports of handicrafts being produced in this village said Kumar.
