KARACHI: Artisans from central, upper and lower Sindh showcased their handicrafts on Friday, the first day of the three-day Sindh Craft Festival 2018 held at the National Museum of Pakistan.

Syed Sardar Ali Shah, Sindh Minster for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, inaugurated the festival and spoke about how this year the festival is bigger and better. “Last year’s Sindh Crafts Festival only focused on rilli. This year two more distinctively Sindhi items have been included — gajj which is a dress women in interior Sindh wear, and the Sindhi topi,” he said.

“Karachi is our capital and all kinds of people live here. And so we decided to introduce Sindh’s cultural products here. The culture department wants to promote our culture and those handicrafts of Sindh which are available and known in interior Sindh and not in the cities,” he added.

Minister Shah also showed the consuls general of China, Switzerland, Bahrain, UAE, and Italy around the festival where different districts of Sindh were represented at the crafts stalls.

Children of all ages also enjoyed the varied colours of the festival and folk music kept many entertained.

Most of the artisans present at the stalls were women and they spoke about how much hard work is put into each product. They lamented that the same products are bought from interior Sindh at very cheap rates and sold at high prices in the cities. This exhibition, they claimed, brought the profits directly to them.

Abdul Aleem Lashari, director culture, spoke about the need to eliminate the middleman and bring all the profits to those who create these products.

“The culture department facilitates these people by providing them with transport facilities and living arrangements for the duration of the festival. More than half of those at the stalls were women who personally worked on these handicrafts and this is a great opportunity for them to showcase their talent and how to become entrepreneurs,” he said.

Last year’s event was held at Mohatta Palace but due to space constraints the venue was shifted this year; another reason was that the new venue is more central and easy to access.

The Sindh Craft Festival 2018 will continue till March 4 from 11am to 9pm.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2018