Context:

• Chamba district is home to rich heritage of traditional crafts with many craftspersons are earning their livelihood through the businesses related to Chamba ‘rumal’, miniature painting, sculpture, wood art, Chamba ‘chappal’ and Chamba ‘thaal’.

Key Points:

• In order to preserve and promote rich art and culture of Chamba, the district administration has recently launched a project named “Chambyal”, which has registered various art and craft societies to give practical shape to the project.
• Famous art products of the district Chamba ‘rumal’ and Chamba ‘chappal’ have received the “GI” tag under the GI Act 1999. The Chamba ‘chappal’ is available for sale on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon.
• In this regard, various self-help groups formed under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), are empowering their livelihood with products such as Chamba ‘chappal’ by exhibiting their products at various festivals, fairs and district-level programs.
• Some of the self-help groups (SHGs), have been formed by the municipal council Chamba under the NULM. One of such successful SHGs has nine members in the group who together make Chamba ‘chappals’, embroidering these with hand-made silk threads. The group received a loan of Rs 5 lakh at low interest rate apart from that a revolving fund of Rs 10,000 was granted to the SHG under the mission (NULM).
• Most of these self-help groups, for instance Nav Drishti, have been working successfully for the past one year and are being supported by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) from time to time.
• According to the District Manager of National Urban Livelihood Mission, Ruchi Mahajan, 180 self-help groups are currently working in Chamba district under the mission, which includes 10 area-level federations and one cluster-level federation.
• The Bairawali Mata self-help group, for instance, is a group of eight to 10 women who are doing excellent work by embroidering Chamba ‘chappal’. The embroidery done on Chamba ‘chappals’ has become very popular among tourists visiting the area, and it is being appreciated all over the country. Since the sale of Chamba ‘chappal’ has been done online, their demand has increased and the self-help groups are benefiting greatly from it.