Uttar Pradesh Institute of Design and Research expanding its Lucknow campus to impart business training to more artisans
UPIDR was set up under the Department of MSME ( micro, small and medium enterprises) and Export Promotion, and has been aiding in the skill development of local artisan and craftisans under the ODOP (One District One Product) and VSSY (Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana) schemes.
According to Kshipra Shukla, Chairperson, UPDIR, this year alone, over 14,000 artists have been trained already, and 30,000 more would be trained by the end of 2023. The artisans trained in various crafts include black pottery, chikankari, metalware, gulabi meenakari, and rogan art, among many other art forms.
“Starting in 2017, we have been conducting training programs spanning over seven or ten days in different districts, teaching the local artisans about business and finance management, marketing, social media promotion, and more, ” added Shukla, herself an alumni of National Institute of Fashion Technology. A next level Design Institution is a 4 acre sprawling campus from 4 room small office at Qaiserbagh. It’s the only UP Govt owned Design Institution in UP which is taking a concrete shape since 2017.
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They employed subject experts from across the country and abroad, to come in and speak with the artists about design innovation to contemporise those art forms with more modern designs, by merging art forms and design templates.
Some of these artisans who turned their fortunes include gulabi meenakari artist Kunj Bihari Singh from Varanasi, who received orders worth lakhs monthly, and won a national award as well. Following his training, he has learned how to properly photograph and represent his products online. “After the PM gifted my products to Kamala Harris, within four to five hours, I received orders worth Rs. 1.5 crore,” said Bihari.
Dilshad Hussain is another such artist who rose to fame with the help of UPIDR training programmes. He is a brass carver from Moradabad who received the Padma Shri for his artistry in March this year.
“At UPDIR, the students must take up at least two handicraft forms as electives. So far, pottery and weaving have been most popular amongst the children, it gives the students an insight into the technical knowledge that they aren’t aware of,” informed Shukla.
