BHUBANESWAR: Raghurajpur is among the eight crafts village being developed by the Centre under its ‘Linking Textile with Tourism’ initiative but the State government’s proposal to promote Sukhuapada in Jajpur district and Lalitgiri in Cuttack along similar lines continues to be ignored by the Ministry of Textiles.
The ‘Crafts Village’ is a concept for simultaneous promotion of craft and tourism by providing infrastructure support to handicraft clusters along with soft interventions. Famous for its Pattachitra paintings, Raghurajpur is home to around 150-odd artisan families which are adept at the craft form besides masks, toys and stone carvings.
A release by the Ministry on Friday stated that the Crafts Village scheme aims at developing handicrafts as a sustainable and remunerative livelihood option for artisans in the clusters, thereby protecting the rich artisanal heritage of the country. The Centre has already provided Rs 10 crore for development of Raghurajpur.
The other seven crafts villages are Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Vadaj (Gujarat), Naini (Uttar Pradesh), Anegundi (Karnataka), Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu), Taj Ganj (Uttar Pradesh) and Amer (Rajasthan). These villages are surrounded and connected by major tourist destinations/circuits and have a traditional art and craft heritage which attract maximum tourist footfalls.
On the other hand, the Handlooms, Textiles and Handicrafts department’s proposal to the Ministry to develop Lalitgiri and Sukhuapada as crafts villages is pending with the Ministry since 2018. A detailed proposal was submitted by Odisha State Cooperative Handicrafts Corporation Limited (Utkalika) to the Development Commissioner, Handicrafts in the Ministry of Textiles.
As both the clusters - adjacent to each other - are famous for their stone carving among both domestic and international travellers, the department had approached the Development Commissioner to give the ‘Crafts Village’ tag to the villages to develop the art form and artisans besides attracting tourists. “Despite the potential of the two villages to draw tourists, the proposal has not been considered by the officials concerned so far,” said an assistant director of the Handicrafts section.
Although villagers of both Sukhuapada and Lalitgiri make idols and other different utility items from stone, they face several problems due to lack of institutional support.