Bhubaneswar: Raghurajpur in Odisha is among the eight craft villages being developed under the ‘Linking Textile With Tourism’ initiative of the Ministry of Textiles.
This is a modern-day concept for the simultaneous promotion of craft and tourism by providing infrastructure support to such handicraft clusters along with soft interventions.
The other seven 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/circuit and have a traditional art and craft heritage, which attract maximum tourist footfalls.
“Craft Village will develop handicrafts as a sustainable and remunerative livelihood option for artisans in the clusters and thus protecting the rich artisanal heritage of the country. Through this programme, around 1000 artisans will be benefitted directly across the country. This programme has also increased the tourist inflow across these Craft Villages,” a PIB release said.
It helps to increase the income of the artisans through the-design innovations and sales of their handcrafted products at the workplace and in connecting and disseminating the heritage, culture, food and other aspects of the area, which also ensures livelihood to the other sectors as well.
