Guests look at tribal exhibits on display at Biponi, Bistupur. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, March 28: After ayurvedic and herbal products, it is now the turn for post offices in the state to sell rural handicraft items.

K.C. Shashidhar, the chief general manager of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), announced this today during the opening of Rural Mart, a one-stop destination for selling tribal handicraft and handloom products at Bistupur. Spread over 700sqft, the Rural Mart at Jamshedpur retains its original name Biponi.

The place houses items such as dokra, pyatkar paintings and sawai mat products.

At least four such rural marts are scheduled to be opened at the state. While the first one was inaugurated last week at Deogarh, the others would be opened at Ranchi and Hazaribagh on Monday.

The other marts in the state would have products specific to the areas — Deogarh would have traditional pedas and organic puja ingredients, Ranchi would showcase forest produce and Hazaribagh would house Sohrai paintings.

“These marts would act as a link between rural artisans and the mainstream market,” said Shashidhar.

Both Nabard and the state postal department have decided to give incentives to peons or post office officials to play an active part in the sale of the tribal products.

The main rural marts would be managed not by NGOs or Nabard, but by self-help groups..

“The main rural marts would be stylised showrooms. Compared to those the ones coming up at the post offices would be small kiosks,” added Shashidhar.

Today’s event also marked a discussion with bankers and insurance agents. There was also a presentation by XLRI students on their new social enterprise venture, Parichay, which would be linked to the project.

Tomorrow, the first buyers’ and sellers’ meet would be organised at the G-Town grounds where tribal sellers would get a chance to directly correspond with national level buyers, banks and financial agencies for the first time.