The Hindu : New Delhi News : Offerings from Bhadohi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 21, 2006
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New Delhi

Offerings from Bhadohi

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

COLOURFUL: Baskets from Bhadohi

NEW DELHI: Women of Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh will be bringing to Delhi their exclusive range of baskets and other attractive products including slippers, desktop accessories, waste baskets, magazine baskets and mobiles for cars during a five-day exhibition titled "Baskets from Bhadohi" to be held at the WWF India office on Lodhi Road from this Thursday.

Organised by Dastkari Haat Samiti and sponsored by the Union Ministry of Textiles, the exhibition will be inaugurated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

It will seek to encourage women to realise their skills and potential.

Public hearing

Explaining how the exhibition was put together, Dastkari Haat Samiti president Jaya Jaitly says: "We had conducted a public hearing on behalf of the National Commission for Women in 2004 at Bhadohi among hundreds of women carpet weavers to assess the effect of globalisation on women in the carpet industry. It was at this meeting that the women's unrecognised skill of basket weaving came to light. The quality of existing skills was assessed and 40 women from surrounding villages with the best skills were selected to create new designs in basketry.''

Subsequently, Ms. Jaitly points out, "50 prototypes using the local sarpat grass, local and natural dyes, accessories in hand crafted and painted wood, glass beads and handloom fabrics, all accessed from crafts persons in nearby Varanasi, were created at design workshops held in Jagatpur and Kusauli early this year. We then joined hands with Sandhi Craft Foundation, an initiative supported by the ICICI Bank, to develop their baskets into viable, attractive products for the national and international market''.

The Dastkari Haat Samiti hopes that this marketing event, "Baskets from Bhadohi", will help them assess the response of customers -- including retail, wholesale and corporate -- to the offerings from Bhadohi.

Markets will be sought to be created through e-commerce, preparation of catalogues, further test marketing at exhibitions and craft bazaars and participation in trade fairs.

During the event the women will also be free to accept and undertake production for any agency or customer even if they want to do it directly.

"The next phase of the development and empowerment programme will involve formation of self-help groups and delivery of micro-credit for further production. We hope that with customer appreciation and acceptance of these baskets from Bhadohi, the women producers will not only earn a better monthly income but also save from the sales proceeds to support a better life and living environment. Development work needs a human story, marketing linkages and attractive products at reasonable prices. The Dastkari Haat Samiti hopes that a successful mix of all these will help realise the dreams of the women basket makers,'' Ms. Jaitly adds.

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