Organising fairs and exhibitions for increased marketing avenue for the products
Organising fairs and exhibitions for increased marketing avenue for the products Fairs & Exhibitions are organised on regular basis to open up avenues for marketing the products of the self-help groups and self-employed entrepreneurs and establish their linkages with potential buyers, apart from publicizing and creating awareness regarding quality, prices, and usefulness of the products. The Department organizes annual fairs known as SabalaMela at the state level, for Kolkata and for at the level of the districts and often sub-districts. The SHGs not only succeeded in selling their merchandise considerably but also a majority of them succeeded in establishing links with some business houses, whole-sellers and eminent persons of the marketing world for future sale of their products all the year round. Dissemination of knowledge amongst the common people related to SHGs and SEs and their products including niche products was also a major objective. Cultural programmes are organised every evening to make this fair more attractive. The Department aimed at enabling the SHGs and entrepreneurs to have access to the market both domestic/national and international. A few selected SHGs and individual entrepreneurs take part in India International Trade Fair every year wherein the products,especially the innovative ones manufactured by the SHGs and self-employed entrepreneurs were adored and purchased by buyers from all the cross sections of the society in Delhi and also by buyers from outside the country. Apart from this, a large no. of SHGs take part in the fairs organized by different departments of the State Government and various fairs organized by the civil society organisations. Construction of Training-cum-Marketing Complexes(KARMATIRTHA): The Department has undertaken a programme of setting up of projects of Training-cum-Marketing Complex (Karmatirtha) in the district and sub-divisional headquarters underthe State Plan to facilitate training of SHGs for skill development and for marketing of their products.
