8 craft villages under a prog to promote textiles with tourism: Govt

To promote craft and tourism at a single location, eight craft villages have been taken under the 'linking textile with tourism' programme, benefitting around 1,000 artisans, a release said on Friday.

Major tourist places are being linked with handicraft clusters and infrastructure supports combined with soft interventions are being proposed under the 'Linking Textile with Tourism', the Textiles Ministry said in the release.

Craft Village will develop handicrafts as a sustainable and remunerative livelihood option for artisans in the clusters and thus protecting the rich artisanal heritage of the country, it said.

''Through this programme, around 1,000 artisans will be benefited directly across the country. This programme has also increased the tourist inflow across these Craft Villages,'' the ministry stated.

The craft villages are located at Raghurajpur (Odisha), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Vadaj (Gujarat), Naini (Uttar Pradesh), Anegundi (Karnataka), Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu), Taj Ganj (Uttar Pradesh), Amer (Rajasthan).