Excelsior Correspondent
BASOHLI, Sept 8: A one-day workshop was organized on “Revival of Cottage Based Industry, Conservation and Branding of ITKs”, under the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme (HADP) at Basohli in Kathua district.
The workshop was organized by SKUAST-Jammu in collaboration with the Directorate of Handicrafts and Handloom, Jammu. Megha Baogia, Deputy Director Planning of Handicrafts and Handloom, was the chief guest for this programme and highlighted the importance of cottage-based industry for the economic and holistic development of UT of J&K.
Dr R K Bhardwaj, PI, HADP, welcomed the chief guest and resource persons namely Tanuj Dogra (an expert on Designing) and Sham Lal (President of the weaver’s society) and the artisans (38 in numbers) and gave the overall views of the workshop.
He emphasized the importance of brand development, product authentication, modernization of machinery, technological interventions to keep up with the modern era and common infrastructure development for the ITKs in the Basohli.
Tanuj Dogra gave a comprehensive lecture on the role of designing and dyeing in the value addition of shawls and wool-based products. Sham Lal spoke about the pashmina sector in Basohli and raised some issues hindering the development of this industry in the area.
This was followed by a two-way interaction between the experts and the artisans to understand the basic problems of the artisans and weavers in the field. Artisans raised the issue of lower returns due to older charkhas and looms and asked for immediate help for the revival of the industry in the area by providing modern tools especially fast-spinning modern charkhas (pedal-operated) and looms.
Zakir and Rahul, well-known weavers of the area, highlighted the much-awaited need to establish a testing lab in Basohli pashmina shawls that will authenticate the product, control its quality and prevent its duplicacy.
Most of the weavers asked to organize training programmes on designing and preparation of fine wool shawls. The weavers highlighted the problem of the shortage of pashmina in the area that deprives them of regular weaving and income. The weavers proposed a Government-arranged procurement of pashmina from Ladakh once a year based on the local demand of the weavers. Vote of thanks was delivered by Dr Vikas Mahajan (Co-PI, HADP).
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