Mahalaxmi SARAS Mela 2019 – a Fair highlighting rural arts and crafts of different states in India – got off to a panoramic start in Mumbai on January 23 with the visitors flocking in great numbers for feasting their eyes on the variety of rural products on the first day itself. As many as 27 states of India are participating in this Fair – which will be held till February 4, 2019 — with products made by the women’s self-help groups and others being displayed in great profusion of colours, quantity and quality.

Around 50 stalls set up in the Mela are sponsored by NABARD, which is a co-sponsor of this event and sponsors the various participating stalls annually. One of them highlights the once-princely state of Mysore which is represented here through its exquisite, colourful products ranging from fragrant incense sticks – made by Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in Mysore and sold for between Rs 250 and Rs 50 per packet – to various artistic pictures comprising wooden carvings delicately inlaid into framed pictures that tell narrate a tale of their own in the different avatars of ‘Ashta-Ganesha’, ‘Krishna and the Gopis’, the ‘Elephant and Mahout’ and so on.

Siddharaj and Vasanta, who have come from Mysore in Karnataka to sell these items, said the wooden inlay pictures are ‘collectors’ delight for connoisseurs due to their uniqueness in displaying epic storytelling at its best. The ‘Elephant and Mahout’ piece has been priced at Rs one lakh, while the Krishna piece sale price is Rs 25,000 and the others are prices around Rs 10,000 or so, said Siddharaj, while mentioning that it takes months of patient carving work to sculpt these magnificent pieces.

“The Elephant and Mahout picture was completed in five months, while the ‘Krishna and the Gopis’ took 25 days for finishing to perfection,” he said while noting that people with an eye for fine arts including passionate collectors throng such events for the best of bargains in such art pieces.

Earlier, the Fair began with the Maharashtra Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao inaugurating the event before touring the venue along with Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Ms Pankaja Munde and various government officials. R Amalorpavanathan, Deputy Managing Director, NABARD inaugurated the NABARD-sponsored rural crafts section at the Fair.

R Vimla, CEO, Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MSRLM), while presenting the Governor and Minister with gift hampers that contained rural-made articles like ‘Soap made from Goat milk,’ batik crafts etc – said that all these articles represented the efforts of these rural folk as part of self-help groups that earned their livelihood in creative ways.

“This Fair represents a long journey of 17 years efforts in heading rural activities towards prosperity and excellence. Now we have come out with e-saras – an online platform – which will ensure that the rural people sell their goods and get paid without anyone in between,” she said while describing the present “Yellow Revolution” that is a concept based on the “White Revolution (Milk).

“The ‘Yellow Revolution’ is about eggs and around 82,000 SHGs are dealing with eggs as this initiative focuses on the ‘desi’ egg market to encourage +backyard+ poultry farming,” she said while mentioning figures of about 3 crores eggs being consumed — in comparison to 75 lakh eggs being produced in Maharashtra of which 68,000 were ‘desi’ hens eggs – and for which reason eggs have to be imported in from neighbouring and other states to meet the consumption demand. Meanwhile, the Yellow Revolution roadmap has been charted out and the concerned officials are also in talks with big business players like Big Bazar and Nature’s Basket in this regard, she pointed out.

The Maharashtra Governor also kick-started the use of the ‘e-saras’ app with a click of a smartphone button. Highlighting the ‘e-saras’ App as a facilitator in which people could buy eggs from their homes, Vimla said rural womenfolk would be paid through the Yes Bank online upon delivering the eggs that they supplied to a collectors at the village levels and so on.

“Today, we are launching around 50 products on the ‘e-saras’ app, including the goats milk soap that is manufactured rural women folk in Buldana,” she said.

Describing menstrual hygiene as a ‘sticky’ subject, she also highlighted how the ‘Asmita Yojna’ was launched to create awareness in prevention of ‘Cervical Cancer’ and making sanitary napkins affordable at cost of Rs 25 per pack. However, in case women could not afford to buy these napkins, this Yojna would also ensure distribution of free sanitary napkins – from January 23 itself – to all women including young girls, besides also for women in jails and elsewhere, while also tying up with the ‘Mahila Bal Vikas Kalyan’ for,000 napkins being distributed to women in the Zillas.

The Maharashtra Government, in association with NABARD and other stakeholders, has organized the 13-day mela to provide a platform for rural artisans, enterprises and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to exhibit and sell their products, including handicraft and handloom, manufactured by them.

The NABARD, which has been supporting this state-level annual event for more than a decade, has set up 50 stalls here as part of the rural crafts fair this year to provide a platform for over 100 artisans and SHGs from across 27 states to market their products. This event, while offering the rural artisans the prospect of showcasing their creativity and creations, would expose them to the city markets while also helping redesign and sell their products in conformity with the latest trend, NABARD officials said.

As part of the Mela, NABARD is also facilitating a buyer-seller meet with large buyers on February 1, 2019, besides also an interactive session with the unique e-commerce portal to create awareness about online sale.