Govt to revive dying art forms

CHANDIGARH: With a view to reviving the dying art forms of Haryana the state government is contemplating a tieup between the Khadi Village Industries Board KVIB and the United Nations Development Programme UNDP

Updated At : 05:50 AM Jun 15, 2018 IST

Traditional art forms of Haryana like brass utensils are fast dying for want of training and lack of market.

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 14

With a view to reviving the dying art forms of Haryana, the state government is contemplating a tie-up between the Khadi Village Industries Board (KVIB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Formal documents could be signed soon, it is learnt.

Sources said the tie-up is one of the several steps being considered for reviving vanishing art forms by giving impetus to the KVIB, which remained almost defunct for long before the present BJP government appointed Gargi Kakkar as its chairperson.

At a meeting chaired by Additional Chief Secretary, Industries, Devender Singh, on Wednesday, it was also proposed to introduce training and workshops of artisans and plan a marketing strategy so that dying art forms of the state could be revived.

Nishita Banerjee and Nilanjana Sen, both Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s Good Governance Associates from Jhajjar and Kurukshetra districts, respectively, who have worked on the project for revival of KVIB for the revival of fading art forms, were also present.

“We both jointly took up the project last year and have been working on it for nearly eight months. We noticed that the KVIB, which provides loans for setting up of village industries, also has the mandate to provide training to artisans. However, this was not being done in the state,” Nishita said.

“There are several traditional art forms of Haryana, like Tille Ki Jutti and brass utensils of Jagadhri which are fast dying for want of training and lack of market. We submitted our findings to the government and Wednesday’s meeting was a step in the direction of revival of KVIB,” she said.

Nilanjana said the two of them also visited the National Institute of Design (NID), Kurukshetra, and were trying to see what kind of arrangement could be made with them. She said NID was already working with the Gujarat Khadi Village Industries Board in that state. “Since the board’s capacity is not sufficient in terms of human resources, alliances with entities like the UNDP or NID can go a long way in improving its functioning and reviving the fading art forms,” she added.