Dharamshala youth makes bamboo art a source of income

Vijay Mehra, who has preserved bamboo art for years, is also training women of the village and people who lost their jobs during Corona pandemic.

Dharmshala:After Himachal Pradesh has announced to plant ninety thousand bamboo saplings in 90 hectares under the Prime Minister National Bamboo Mission in 2020-21, Various government agencies and non-governmental organisations have been giving priority to manufacture bags and other packing materials other than polythene.

But Bamboo artist Vijay Mehra, resident of Dharamshala has already taken up this work to provide alternatives to plastics and to reducing or eliminating the use of plastic.

Vijay Mehra, who has preserved the bamboo art for years, is also training women of the village and people who lost their jobs during Corona pandemic.

Vijay has started working as a bamboo artist as an amateur about 20 years ago, but when he did not get a job, he made Bambo art his career. He now teaches this work to the local people and also giving them employment to save extinct art.

People who are working and learning with Vijay Mehra says that after this they can start their Bamboo art studio and along with this, they will also spread the art to more people.

BDO of Dharamshala Abhineet Katyayan said that by linking with the Mukhyamantri Gram Kaushal Yojana with Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, people are being trained in the village to become self-reliant and provide employment opportunities at the village level itself.

It has been about a month of training people on Bamboo art under this scheme. However, even after putting hard work in making things by bamboo, Vijay is not able to take his product to many people.

BDO of Dharamshala also shared plans to sell products made by bamboo

artists, so that they can get the fruits of their hard work.

Vijay Mehra shared that currently, he gets about 1500 rupees to teach one person and he is teaching five women, however since he spends on

raw material, profit is negligible. The government should do something about this.

After the lockdown, this effort to give employment to the people still needs more help and support from the government. At present, this Bamboo Artist is facing difficulties to sell the products to more people.