States Pavilions Social Expo Draws Huge Crowds at CII Chandigarh Fair

By 121 News

Chandigarh 07^th November:- Huge crowds thronged the 4 day CII Chandigarh Fair being organized by CII, with Ample Furniture Mall and Paradigm Group as the event sponsors; NABARD as the event co-sponsor; Religare Health Insurance as the Principal Sponsor; Gupta Builders and Promoters (GBP Group), IOCL as Associate Sponsors; Bittu Fashioners, Bajwa Developers, SBI, and SBOP as the Associate Co-Sponsors and supported by National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).

Daksh India, a new show which is exclusively promoting the crafts of rural India, channelized by Cottage Emporium & TRIFED for the first time, emerged as a stupendous success. A large number of visitors were charmed by the small decorative pieces, handlooms, furniture items, designer handbags, utility articles, animal shaped showpieces in sandal wood, kadam wood and bronze, garments like strolls, shawls made of sheep, rabbit or marino wool, well crafted khadi kurtis, dupattas, suits and sarees showcased by various small and cottage entrepreneurs facilitated by Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has tied up with NABARD and provided stalls to 27 rural artisans and NGOs from various states like Punjab (15), Haryana (8) and HP (4) that are showcasing their special talent to the visitors in Social Expo in Hall 7.

One corner of the CII Social Expo remained flooded with buyers whole day, this is the corner where workers from the Meher Baba Charitable Trust, Bassi Pathana, District Fatehgarh Sahib are selling exquisitely crafted Punjabi Phulkari items traditional 'bags', like-pillow covers, designer stoles, bedsheets, clutches, cushion covers, customised Panjabi suits to chic 'kurtis', table covers, traditional mobile covers and key chains etc.

Called as the Mecca of Traditional Phulkari, this stall also has a special range of Bagh Dupatta, which has 68 colours in it. Priced at Rs 6200, they have already sold 45 pieces. The artisans have challenged that nobody can identify these 68 colours, even in 5 minutes and if anybody does that he/ she will get huge discount.

Ms Raj Rani, Project Manager, Phulkari Makers, Meher Baba Charitable Trust said that we are delighted to see such over-whelming response from the residents of City Beautiful. On day 1 itself we ran out of stock due to huge demand. It is really heartening for us to see that talent of the deprived and under-privileged women of society is getting such great appreciation. Our Trust has adopted 187 villages of Fatehgarh Sahib to provide free vocational training to 2000 women and platform like CII Chandigarh Fair acts as great encouragement.

Similar is the story of Vatika Specialized School for deaf & dumb, sector 19, Chandigarh whom CII has offered a complementary stall. They are showcasing products made by Deaf & Dumb children like Diwali Greeting cards, Square floating Candles, sunflower candles, table mats, carry bags, nighties etc.

Talking about the promotion of regional talent, Pikender Pal Singh, Regional Director, CII NR shared that this is the 6^th year when CII has tied up with NABARD for CII Chandigarh Fair. We at CII not only look forward to promote self-help groups but also make sure that their work gets promotion and admiration. The exposure which the artists get here adds a lot to their confidence, especially the under-privileged women of the society. It is a great platform for women empowerment also. It has been a constant endeavour of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to promote the talent and work of NGOs and Self Help Groups.