Delhi promotes Afghan craftsmanship

An ongoing handicrafts exhibition in New Delhi is creating ample opportunities for Afghan craftsmen.

'Asia Bazar Dastkar' exhibition in New Delhi has opened an avenue for crafts people from Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The Afghan exhibitors showcased their handicraft products like carpets, clothes, accessories and decorative items.

Afghan crafts items are highly appreciated in India. However, the exhibition is a marketing platform of Afghan craftsmen to interact with customers directly and create a market place for them.

"Dastkar has been a platform for the Afghan entrepreneurs to showcase their products. The good point of Dastkar is that it has three dimensions, one it has cultural dimensions that Afghanistan government also aims to improve and increase Afghanistan culture. Unfortunately Afghanistan is suffering from the decades of conflict. Unfortunately we are only known from the war and conflicts. It is an excellent platform for achieving that objective", said Shokrullah Amiri, subject matter expert, Program Operation Officer, Afghanistan.

The decades long war has severely affected the rural crafts of Afghanistan and they find it difficult to market their produce.

"In Afghanistan, there are micro challenges that every sector is suffering. For instance it is the security, poor infrastructure of course and lack of awareness of the markets and access to markets and totally disconnected from the demand. This is the major challenges of the industry sector, corporate sector or the handicraft sector in Afghanistan," added Shokrullah Amiri.

Meanwhile, a craftsperson like Kaif is happy to participate in the exhibition as he hopes to get a better market for his craft work.

"It is a good opportunity we can say it is like a bridge that connects different societies and I hope we will find some regular customer through here and we learn how other crafts are making their products. It is a very good opportunity that we can meet directly with the producers I mean those people who are producing handicrafts and from that we become able to bring some change in our products in the future to meet future market requirement," said Kaif, an Afghan craftsman.

In Afghanistan, 80 percent of the poor population lives in rural areas and craftswork is a source of income for many of them.