• To promote craft and tourism at a single location, eight craft villages have been taken under the ‘Linking Textile With Tourism’ programme, benefitting around 1,000 artisans.

• ‘Linking Textiles with Tourism’ through craft villages is a modern-day concept wherein craft promotion and tourism are being taken up simultaneously.

• Major tourist places are being linked with handicraft clusters and infrastructure supports combined with soft interventions are being proposed under the ‘Linking Textile with Tourism’.

• Craft village will develop handicrafts as a sustainable and remunerative livelihood option for artisans in the clusters and thus protecting the rich artisanal heritage of the country.

• Through this programme, around 1,000 artisans will be benefited directly across the country. This programme has also increased the tourist inflow across these Craft Villages.

The craft villages under the programme are:

• Raghurajpur (Odisha)

• Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh)

• Vadaj (Gujarat)

• Naini (Uttar Pradesh)

• Anegundi (Karnataka)

• Mamallapuram (Tamil Nadu)

• Taj Ganj (Uttar Pradesh)

• Amer (Rajasthan). 

Raghurajpur is famous for Odisha’s ancient Pattachitra art. In Odia language ‘Patta’ means canvas and ‘chitra’ means picture. This is made on ‘Pati’ a handmade canvas prepared by pasting together layers of cloth. The artisans use handmade natural colours for the paintings. The themes of Pattachitra are mostly mythological and religious stories.

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