The success of Project Muslin has buoyed the West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board (WBKVIB), for further development in cotton Khadi, a project has been taken up.
There is a huge demand for cotton Khadi at present in both domestic and international markets, mainly due to its eco-friendly nature.
The project cost will be to the tune of Rs 16.52 crore and around 4,950 artisans will be trained.
These artisans are now mostly producing traditional items of white khadi and conventional items of cotton khadi.
According to the CEO of WBKVIB, the main objectives of the project are to train the artisans in churning out products as per the present market demand (in terms of design), provide them with the infrastructure to achieve that and create a platform for marketing their products.
The 14 districts that have been earmarked for the project are Birbhum, Malda, Murshidabad, Hooghly, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Nadia, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur.
It may be mentioned that in the area of cotton khadi production in Bangla there are about 115 khadi institutions and societies working at present.