Delhi Purbashree Emporium carving a niche for itself

The New Delhi centre of Purbashree Emporium with its display of North East handloom and handicrafts located in the heart of the capital at Rajiv Gandhi Handicraft Bhawan, State Emporia Complex, Baba Kharag Singh Marg has created a niche in the domain of handloom and handicraft industry.
With its intricate and exquisite ethnic designs coupled with brilliant finish of the products, each item displayed in the emporium attracts a large number of customers, including foreigners. The emporium is popular among Delhiites and tourists too.

A unit of North-Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation Ltd, the emporium was opened in June last year by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, disclosed RS Chankum, Managing Director of the Corporation.
The corporation is a Central PSU under the administrative control of the Department of Development of North Eastern Region( DoNER). Set up in March 1977, its head office is at Shillong. It has offices in Guwahati and New Delhi, while its Purbashree emporia are located at New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Shillong, Guwahati and Chennai. The Corporation promotes, develops and markets handicraft and handloom products of NE.

Chankum revealed that cane and bamboo products, Manipuri silk and cotton sarees and ‘mekhela chadar’ from Assam were among the high demand items in the Delhi emporium.
Talking about the products, he stated that they collected the finished products directly from skilled artisans and from about 80 clusters of weavers.
The Corporation helped them by reaching out to the craft clusters and stimulated production, besides undertaking marketing of these unique products across the country.
Sarah, who is showroom incharge of Purbashree emporium, said that the main aim and objectives of setting up the emporium was to promote and preserve the rich cultural and traditional handlooms and handicrafts of the NE States. It also aimed to promote and motivate skills of the craftsmen and weavers who did not have the chance to showcase their skills.

The emporium housed different products, including silk mekhela chadar from Assam, woollen shawls and half jackets from Nagaland, fine bamboo hats from Mizoram, silk and cotton sarees, mats of Kouna reed from Manipur; woollen carpets from Arunachal Pradesh, bamboo items from Tripura, besides brilliant bamboo and cane products from Meghalaya.

She stated that all the items displayed in the emporium had their typical specialties and were crafted by skilled weavers and craftsmen from the States concerned, which gave a traditional and original touch to the products.

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