Jamshedpur, Sept 5: In an attempt to promote handicrafts production and training on a large scale, the state industry department has decided to open handicrafts development and resource centres in seven districts of the state.
The districts include Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamshedpur and Daltongunj.
Sources informed that for the purpose, the industry department has notified the Rural Development Authority, functioning under the rural development ministry, to hand over all the 37 handicraft training centres managed by it at present to them. After bifurcation of Bihar, 37 out of 90 such training centres have come under Jharkhand. “The aim of developing such centres is to promote training and production of traditional handicraft items on a larger scale for export purposes.
Services of master craftsmen from within the state and outside would be hired for providing training and tips on manufacturing handicraft items as per the requirement of international market,” said joint director (technical) industries department, U.P. Arya.
The centres, include a Handicraft Research Institute to be built at Khunti in Ranchi, which would have the state-of-the-art facility including applications of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) for craft work.
The centre at Dhanbad will focus on knitting and weaving, while that of Dumka will take care of the traditional Dokra, Sanjut and Jadupatia paintings.
The Jamshedpur centre will deal in paperwork, bamboo and cane while the Deoghar centre will manufacture and provide training on ceramics, terracotta and weaving works. Sources said industry department is yet to earmark the nature of handicraft items to be produced by the other centres.
According to Arya, sites have been selected in all these seven districts for the construction of handicrafts resource centres which would take a minimum of six-months time for completion.
The proposed handicraft research centre in Ranchi would have all the necessary equipment and gadgets for carrying out research on different handicraft items, Arya added.
