Mysore to be made centre for new design bamboo craft

Mysore has been identified as a mass production centre for traditional and new design bamboo craft items with a view to have mass production for meeting the increasing global demand.

Mysore has a large number of Medars, people engaged in production of varieties of bamboo items like baskets, ladders, mats and other traditional items. They have formed a co-operative society, Shivasharana Ketheswara Medar Industrial Co-operative Society.

Aiming to develop new market-oriented products with upgradation of the Medars' skills and give these artisans an exposure to new tools and techniques, the Bangalore-based Regional Design and Technical Development Centre (RD&TDC) of the Handicrafts Development Commissioner, Government of India, is conducting a 15-day design and technical development workshop in bamboo craft in Mysore.

Forty artisans from Mysore, Nanjangud, Hunsur and Kushalanagar will take part in the workshop. About 88 artisans grouped into eight self-help groups have already been given training by Myrada in various aspects including conducting socio-micro enterprises.

The RD&TDC is taking up the second phase comprising technical upgradation, design development, manufacture of export-oriented items, and marketing assistance, Mysore-based Handicrafts Marketing & Service Extension Centre assistant director S C Devaramani told Business Standard today.

"We want to give them integrated inputs for three years and make their effort emerge as self-sustained enterprise. Besides Rs 4,000 margin money from the government, they can avail soft loans ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh on the artisan credit card cum pass book to be issued by the State Bank of Mysore. About 300 artisans have evinced interest in this effort," he said.

The RD&TDC, which is conducting research, experiments and developing hand tools, equipments and techniques for avoiding drudgery in the process and manufacture of handicraft products, intends to make the bamboo artisans cut down their drudgery by taking to mechanised processes. Machinery for bamboo slashing, treatment and other purposes are available in China and Japan.

"This will enable them to become self-sustained units for indigenous and export markets," RD&TDC Deputy Director P Mallikarjunaiah said.

The RD&TDC is working on wood-bamboo and sisal fibre-bamboo combinations. Sisal is grown plenty in areas like Chamarajanagar and already 300 women have been trained.

The RD&TDC conducts such workshops once a year in one selected cluster area. Besides design and technical inputs, it also assists in building exports.

At the end of the workshop, selected exporters are brought in and exposed to products of new designs and techniques manufactured by the artisans.

"In the Mysore workshop, we intend to develop at least 50 new bamboo craft designs and build export market," Devaramani said.