The first ever National Khadi Exhibition held in Srinagar recently, with the Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and his team present on the occasion, provided an opportunity to the Chief Minister to speak about the potential of Kashmir handicrafts as a strong source of earning foreign exchange if developed and supported properly. She connected this small enterprise by Kashmiri artist to India-Pakistan relations in the context of its development. Her contention is that Kashmir has become the victim of Indo-Pak hostilities because people of Kashmir have to bear the brunt directly.
Certainly, if there is peace between the two countries, Kashmiri art and handicraft dealers would find a big market in Pakistan to earn foreign exchange. Many Kashmiri thinkers and political activists believe that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken the first initiative to break the long stalemate between the two countries and he had personally travelled by bus to Lahore in search of abiding peace between the two neighbouring countries.
Of course, during his first stint in office, late Mufti Sayeed had worked in the direction of reducing Indo-Pak tension on border and the law and order situation had improved as he had a clear roadmap before him for delivering the State from disorder and turmoil and restore normalcy. However, owing to political ups and downs, the process which he had started could not be sustained and today we are back in square one.
Kashmir handicrafts are renowned all over the world and it is but natural that the State Government seeks financial support and technical expertise in advancing the macro, small and medium size entrepreneurship in the State so that it contributes to the reducing the number of educated unemployed in the State. The Chief Minister has many proposals up her sleeve and she put it before the Union Minister when the latter went to see her at her residence in Srinagar. Apart from financial incentives, what is of importance for making best use of the schemes floated by the Union Government like PMEGP (Prime Minister’s Employment Guarantee Programme) or Clusters Development Programme etc. is that of imparting skills to the prospective micro, small or medium entrepreneurs. In that sense the Chief Minister would like to have more technical institutes on the pattern of setting up a Technology Centre, on the pattern of Process cum Products Development Centre (PPDC) Meerut, for promotion of cricket bat industry in Anantnag.
We have been noting that ever since Modi came to power, he has been stressing upon providing skills to the Indian youth in a very big way so that unemployment among the youth is removed. In fact many steps have been taken by the Government in this regard and the Union Minister for MSME said in his statement in Srinagar that the Union government has the plan of imparting various skills to more than one crore of people in next five years. Naturally, Jammu and Kashmir will have its share in this programme. Along with that, the Ministry is also taking into account other aspects connected with small enterprises and their proliferation in the country. These programmes are like marketing, advertising, evaluation and expansion of small scale industries so as to make these viable as means of sustenance to the people in large numbers.
While there is full recognition of Kashmir specific handicrafts industry and the large number of people engaged in it and its contribution to the economy of the State, it is also important that non-traditional industrial skills should be made available to the youth in all the three regions of the State. Diversification of skills and trades is a key to overcoming unemployment. Technical centres where skill for non-traditional industries will be imparted would be a positive step towards industrialization of the State.
Although the function at which the Chief Minister and the Union Minister spoke was organized in connection with promotion of Khadi and handicrafts, yet in the context of promoting industries, we must not confine to traditional trades only. Information technology has brought such a big revolution that if properly handled, it can become the biggest employment engine for our youth. We think that J&K would be very attractive Silicon Valley after Bangalore in Karnataka. The State and the Central Governments should take into account the possibility of developing country’s largest IT centre in the State. All that we mean to say is that there should be diversification in trades and skills while the traditional ones are given full financial and technical support.
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