Minority Affairs Ministry to establish 'Hunar Hubs' in every state: Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

NEW DELHI/ALLAHABAD: The Minority Affairs Ministry is working on a war footing to establish 'Hunar Hubs' in every state in the next five years to train and encourage indigenous artisans and craftsmen, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Sunday.

The ministry has sanctioned 100 'Hunar Hubs" or skill centres in different parts of the country in the first 100 days of the second Modi government, he said in New Delhi on the completion of 'Hunar Haat' organised at North Central Zone Cultural Centre in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Training will be provided to master artisans, craftsmen and traditional culinary experts according to modern needs in these centres, the Minority Affairs Minister said.

Naqvi said that more than 300 master artisans and culinary experts, including a large number of women, from various parts of the country, participated in 'Hunar Haat' in Allahabad.

Besides these master artisans, about 100 people associated with each of these artisans also received employment opportunities, he said.

More than 10 lakh people visited at 'Hunar Haat' in Allahabad and business worth crores of rupees took place for handmade, rare exquisite products, a statement said.

Naqvi said that all the 'Hunar Haats', to be organised in 2019 and 2020, will be based on the theme of 'Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat'.

The next 'Hunar Haat' will be organised at the Trade Fair in New Delhi (November 14 to 27) and then Mumbai (December 20 to 31), the minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

In the coming days, 'Hunar Haat' will be organized in Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Dehradun, Patna, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Raipur, Hyderabad, Puducherry, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jammu, Shimla, Goa, Kochi, Guwahati, Ranchi, Bhubneshwar, Ajmer among other places, he said.

Naqvi said handmade indigenous products and traditional delicacies from across the country, and traditional cultural programmes performed daily by renowned artists, were the major attraction for visitors at the Allahabad event.

Naqvi said that employment-oriented schemes of the Modi government such as 'Hunar Haat' have ensured economic empowerment of traditional master artisans and craftsmen from the Minority communities.

'Hunar Haat' has proved to be 'empowerment exchange' for master artisans and craftsmen, he said.

More than 2,50,000 master artisans, craftsmen and culinary experts have been provided employment and employment opportunities in the last three years, he said.

The Modi government will provide employment and employment opportunities to lakhs of artisans, craftsmen and traditional culinary experts through 'Hunar Haat' in the next five years, Naqvi said.

Artisans brought with them indigenous handmade exquisite pieces from Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and almost all the other states of the country, he said.

Renowned artists such as Dinesh Raghuvanshi, Nawaz Devbandi, Mahendra Ajnabi, Shambhu Shikhar, Ritu Goyal, Rahul Joshi among others performed traditional cultural programmes at the Allahabad event.