Bhubaneswar, Aug. 14: The state government has inked a deal with Delhi-based Asian Heritage Foundation to create employment opportunities among tribal weavers and craftsmen in the state.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who was present when the MoU was signed with the organisation's chief Rajiv Sethi, said the partnership was an encouraging move to promote traditional skills among tribal families.

The project, titled 'Creating inclusive business model for marginalised tribal communities', will cover 1,600 vulnerable artisan families, of which 70 per cent will be women. It will be implemented in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Koraput from this year to 2018.

A number of weavers' cooperative societies, handicraft cooperative societies and self-help groups (SHGs) would be involved in the process.

"The project seeks to improve their skills, earning capacity and number of days of employment. It aims at exploring alternative means of economic uplift of the marginalised tribal artisan families," Naveen said.

"Presently, Odisha is the forerunner in issues related to culture; so we thought the project will prove beneficial to the large number of traditional artisans present in the state," said Sethi. The organisation had earlier implemented such projects in states such as Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

As part of the project, six clusters will be set up in both the districts and eight skill development workshops will be conducted. The youth will be trained to operate mobile kiosks and become ambassadors of their products.

Design development workshops will be held for crafts practised in the areas such as metal and bamboo crafts, dokra casting and stone carving. Self-help groups with additional skills such as tailoring and packaging will be identified and trained to set up auxiliary units.

The project will be implemented under the aegis of the department of textiles and handloom that will work towards providing need-based support.

"We would help the organisation in locating places for setting up common facility centres for the artisan groups, assist in conducting workshops and identifying stakeholders for intervention in the proposed areas," said joint secretary of the department, Raja Parija.