Introduction

Madhya Pradesh, due to its geographical location is known as Heart of India. This heart of India is having exquisite art & craft spread over length and breadth of the State. Each cultural zone of the state is having its own specific art and craft, folks songs and dance, cuisine. The state is famous for its different form of art & craft such as Maheshwari & Chanderi Sarees, Gond tribal art, pottery, metal and wood art forms.

Handicrafts have great potential to provide employment opportunities to several artisans. Most of the artisans have inherent art to convert their skills into occupation. But due to lack of market intelligence, lack of design inputs and poor institutional framework they are not able to compete in the market. It leads to low income and ultimately new generations of these artisan families are not learning the skills and migrating to urban areas in search of livelihood.  

Therefore, Responsible Souvenir project is being implemented by the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board under the umbrella of Responsible Tourism Mission. This project aims to diversify the local economy through handicraft development and support the local artisans, particularly women and youth of the community. Assistance is planned to be given through improvement of design, marketing, production, and packaging of craft. This presents the processes of souvenir product development to promote tourism in Madhya Pradesh.

Objectives

• Development and promotion of local handicraft and handloom
• Destination Promotion through Souvenir Development 
• Fair Price through market linkages
• Enhancing income of artisans
• Diversification of projects through skill training of artisans

Area Preferably in and around the villages selected under the Rural Tourism project.

Strategy

The project is being implemented in and around the villages selected under the Rural Tourism Project. So that the activities of these villages will be able to support each other. 

A Technical Support Organization (TSO) is being empaneled with MPTB to provide training, designing, packaging, and marketing support to the local artisans.

A center will be established at village level to provide employment locally. These centers will be managed by the committee, formed locally, to provide long-term sustainability while handholding support will be provided by TSO.

Each center will have at least 3 art forms and approx. 30 products. Around 100 women will be trained through these centers.

The Role of Technical Support Organization

• Identification of art form of which center to be establish in and around rural tourism villages. 
• Mobilization and selection of the trainees to be trained in these centers.
• Equipped these centers with all the required machinery, using the financial support by the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB).
• Market research and design development for souvenir and further train the artisans on the same.
• Get the order and provide the packaging and marketing support to centers they are responsible for. The marketing support will be provided through online and offline channels as well as using social media.