 Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 23: Jammu based NGO ‘Mukti’ Chairperson Nidhi Sharma on Thursday urged the Union Government and Lieutenant Governor of J&K, Girish Chandra Murmu, to release a financial package for all the registered artisans whose livelihood has been adversely hit due to ongoing Nationwide lockdown due to corona pandemic.
‘Mukti’ is a voluntary organization working for the welfare of artisans and rural women.
Appealing to UT administration and department of Industries and Commerce Department of J&K, Nidhi Sharma asked the government to provide minimum daily wages to all the registered artisans as applicable for the skilled workers during the lock down period because artisans are were either unable to get raw material from the market to continue the production of their products or not able to sell their readymade products as markets are closed due to lockdown.
She further said that rural artisans are facing financial crisis as most of them belong to humble financial background and on the pattern of relief package for advocates, farmers, labours,, a financial package of similar kind must be extended to rural women and registered artisans.
“As per official data of the J&K government, there are 2.50 lakh artisans in the UT that are directly linked with Handicrafts for their livelihood and J&K handicraft sector fetches Rs 1700 crore foreign exchange annually,” she claimed.
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