Why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the 'Idol' of Bihar's potter community?
New Delhi: Just two years ago, nobody had even thought that the marginalized potters' community in Bihar would have their day. However, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) launched an ambitious program "Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana" to empower the Kumhar community in Bihar.
It was the dream of none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi to empower the Kumhar community through modern technology and revive the dying art of pottery making in the country.
One such beneficiary of the program is Jai Shankar Pandit, a potter in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar who along with his father used to work earlier on stone chaak. A sea-change has, however, ushered in his life after he received an electric potter wheel from KVIC. High productivity and higher income are all that he can boast of now. And the family has a unique way to express their gratitude to Prime Minister Modi who inspired the Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana of KVIC.
Jai Shankar is now making the idols of the Prime Minister and also earning a respectable livelihood by selling them in Bihar and West Bengal. While Pandit thanked the Prime Minister for empowering the potters' community in Bihar, he said his family could now earn a sustainable livelihood. He said it was the popularity of the Hon'ble Prime Minister that also prompted him to make his idols. "The idols of Modi ji are selling in good numbers and fetching me good price. So far I have sold 75-80 such idols at a rate of Rs 800 per piece," Pandit said.
"Keeping in view the festive season and the ban on Chinese clay items by Modi Ji, I am also making idols of deities - Durga, Laxmi and Ganesh - and a variety of deeya and decorative items to reap maximum advantage," he said. He particularly thanked the Prime Minister for providing better marketing avenues like making earthenware mandatory at various railway stations in
Bihar.
Similar sentiments were expressed by other potters in different parts of Bihar who were benefited by this scheme.
KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said, "Empowerment of the marginalized potters' community is the dream of the Prime Minister and it is heartening to see potters like Jai Shankar expressing their gratitude to the Prime Minister in such a noble way."
"Connecting the potters' community with the mainstream of society by increasing their production and income is the sole objective of Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana. The program has been currently suspended in Bihar due to the Model Code of Conduct but soon after the elections, the Mission will be restarted and spread to the remotest parts of Bihar empowering every potter family," Saxena said.
In just two years KVIC has distribute 500 electric potter wheels to 500 potter families and empowered nearly 20,000 people in Bihar which is estimated to have the potters' population of nearly 10 lakh. KVIC has distributed electric chaak to potters in districts like Rohtas, Bhojpur, Nawada, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Patna, East & west Champaran, Khagaria and Sitamarhi.
"The electric potter wheel has made pottery making quite easier. Working on old traditional chaaks required a lot of physical work but the electric chaak has taken away the drudgery from pottery making. The daily production has also gone up. Earlier, I could hardly make 100 to 150 deeya or Kulhar a day but on the electric chaak, I am making 500 to 600 deeya and Kulhar everyday," Pandit said.
