The government of Uttar Pradesh, UP has launched One District One Product scheme. This scheme would support the indigenous industries of handicrafts, processed foods, garments and other traditional products manufactured by local, micro, small and medium enterprises, MSME.
One District One Product (ODOP) programme aims to make product-specific traditional industrial hubs in as many as 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. This would provide impetus to the traditional industries across various districts. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India referred it to as an extension of Make in India.
Financial Assistance under the ODOP Programme
Various schemes and programmes are there to help people seek financial assistance. Here's a list:
- Common Facility Centre (CFC) Scheme: This scheme would provide financial assistance of up to 90 per cent of the project cost. It is provided by the state government.
- Marketing Development Assistance Scheme: The financial assistance would be provided to all participants of national and international exhibitions and fairs. They can use it for displaying and selling their products selected under ODOP programme.
- Finance Assistance Scheme (Margin Money Scheme): This scheme benefits with not whole but a margin of the project cost. The applicants receive it in the form of subsidy to set up the project.
- Skill Development Scheme: In this, all skilled artisans would be trained through RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning). They would be certified through various Sector Skill Councils, SSCs, whereas the unskilled artisans would be trained for 10 days and provided with an advanced toolkit which will be free of cost
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Significance of ODOP
- The ODOPs are useful in the preservation and development of local crafts/ skills and promoting art.
- It aids in the increase in the incomes and local employment which results in the decline in migration in search of employment.
- Improvement in product quality and skill development would be a result of this scheme
- ODOP would also help in transforming the products in an artistically (it can be either through packaging or branding)
- To connect the production with tourism. This can be done using a live demo and sales outlet that would provide gifts and souvenir
- The programme would also help resolve the issues of economic differences along with regional imbalances among states district
- The artisans can be trained and can be taken to the national and international level after successful implementation of their projects at the state level
Why ODOP in UP
- There are products in UP that cannot be found anywhere else. Products like
- The ancient and nutritious 'Kala namak' rice
- The rare technique of wheat-stalk craft,
- The famous chikankari and zari-zardozi work garments
- The horn and bone work that uses the remains of dead animals rather than living ones, making it a nature-friendly replacement for ivory.
Many of these products are GI-tagged. They are certified to belong to that region in Uttar Pradesh. Many of these were also dying community traditions that are being revived through modernization and publicization.
Many district-specific industries are more commonplace, but their products are still unique to those regions. Asafoetida, Desi ghee, Fancy glassware, Bedsheets, Jaggery, Leather Goods – the districts that specialize in these crafts are in UP. These are also small and medium industries that need modernization, machinery and productivity enhancement.
Way Forward
It has been a very good initiative by the government of Uttar Pradesh to launch such a scheme that would, in turn, give a push to Make in India in the state, give a new life to its small scale industries and generate employment for lakhs of people by reviving many lost arts, traditions and professions. The government needs to implement and monitor the programme and also aid the industries to get easy financial assistance by making user-friendly web portals for the same.