North Bengal cottage industries’ products on display at the district industries centre, Siliguri. Picture by Avijit Sarkar

Siliguri, Sept. 2: After the trading town, it is now Kalimpong’s turn to display its exclusive handicraft in the Manjusha showrooms across the state.

Finding a market has always been a difficult proposition for artisans in India, north Bengal being no exception. While taking the artisans’ work to different local and national fairs has been a part of the government’s efforts to enable the workers sell their products, Manjusha has also been buying handicraft directly from them to sell them in their showrooms.

This time, Manjusha is doing so, with a difference. For the first time, an exhibition was held by artisans of the region here last week, not for the people in general, but for the Manjusha teams from Calcutta, Darjeeling and Siliguri, who bought products worth more than Rs 1 lakh to sell them in their showrooms.

“Earlier, the teams went from door to door collecting wares. It is for the first time in north Bengal that all artisans gathered together, exchanged not only goods but also valuable suggestions and received productive feed-backs. Such programmes are very effective in not only selling products but also boosting the morale of the workers,” said Mitrum Joy Chakravorty, in charge of Manjusha, Siliguri.

“We had just requested Manjusha for this purchase programme and they agreed. This will prove to be a benefit not only for artisans but for the government as well. A lot of transportation cost will be saved for Manjusha which had to go to artisans in different places for purchase,” said B.R. Sarkar, officer-in-charge, sub-district industries centre, Siliguri.

The artisans are also benefiting from the programme. “Earlier, the artisans had to go far and wide, wherever they saw the possibility of a market, to get their products sold. Now that programmes like this have started in north Bengal, it will solve a lot of problems. Going to far-off places like Calcutta to sell our products proves to be very expensive for us due to the heavy transport cost involved,” said Subhirado Das, a jute artisan from Jalpaiguri.

“Along with making it easier for us to sell our products, we are also getting a fair price for our pots,” said Sujit Sarkar, a clay artisan from Matigara.

“However, more such programmes are needed to bail out the artisans from the poor state that they are in. We have planned to have such programmes at least five times a year. That is why we have decided to hold the next programme in Kalimpong where only the handicrafts from the hilly regions of north Bengal will be purchased. We are hoping that more units will come up if we have such purchase programmes more frequently,” said B.R. Sarkar.

“There is a good demand for such handicraft made out of wood, jute, cane, bamboo. However, there is a greater demand for handicrafts from the hills, which include embroidery, woven shawls, bags and other fancy items, and also Tibetan craft, and we want to capitalise on this,” explained Chakravorty.

“More than money, it is cultural importance that is attached with handicrafts. The products which we pick up from here to sell through our emporiums will reflect the culture of the respective areas they are made in,” said Y.R. Sharma, a staff of Manjusha.