Lucknow: “If the government continues to support our work like this, we will become aatmanirbhar (self-dependent) in no time,” Sohit Prajapati, an artisan in Azamgarh says. He specialises in “black pottery”, for which Nizamabad, his hometown in Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, is famous. It is a unique kind of clay pottery with silver patterns, especially known for its bold colours and sheen.Prajapati makes black pots in a small space near his house, along with five others who work under him. After suffering huge losses during the nationwide lockdown, they have moved to online sales. “Humari stithi Diwali tak aate aate sudhar gayi, kyunki online bikne laga hai humara saman (By Diwali, our situation improved because our products started selling online),” he smiles.However, he is encountering issues with packaging, he says. “Our products are made with clay, and break easily. If we have to survive online, we will have to make our packaging stronger,” he notes, even though he has never sold his products on his own before and has no direct experience of marketing. He adds, “Now we are the craftspeople as well as the entrepreneurs. We don’t have to depend on others for our sale, and we can also make more money this way.”“There was always a middleman, who would eat up at least half of the money we got from our products,” he says. Moving online has meant no middlemen. UP’s ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) scheme identified his work and has promised to help him with a testing lab, a small factory with new equipment and better packaging facilities.One District One Product The ODOP scheme, launched in January 2018, is a UP government flagship programme. The objective of the programme is to preserve, develop and promote local arts, crafts and traditional skills of communities spread across each district of Uttar Pradesh. The programme identifies small, local businesses and facilitates their training to enable them to improve their product quality and increase efficiency. Additionally, the programme aims to add to incomes and local employment, thus preventing migration due to the lack of employment opportunities. The programme also aims to revive traditional crafts.Also read: ‘Can’t Even Pay Our Staff’: Rajasthan Sees 69% Drop in Tourist Arrivals This YearBefore the lockdown, Prajapati would make about Rs 600-700 per day, as most of the money would be taken by the middleman. Now, he makes over Rs 1,000 per day. However, he feels that he and his workers are still not equipped enough to handle big orders. “But we hope to be able to do so in the coming months,” he says.Moving online Under the ODOP Market Development Assistance scheme, the ODOP Cell provides assistance of Rs 10,000 to the ODOP artisans/units, for getting on to e-commerce platforms. This has provided huge encouragement for artisans to move sales online.Navneet Sehgal, additional chief secretary, MSME and export promotion, khadi and village industries and I&PR says, “The objective to onboard ODOP artisans and units to online platforms is so that they can showcase and sell their products to consumers both nationally and globally. The first MOU that the ODOP Cell signed was with Amazon.in and since then, we are working together to create awareness about the benefits of showcasing and selling products through e-commerce portal and onboarding process.” .He added, “Online sales have been a huge support for the artisans, in these difficult times.”Amla from Pratapgarh being sold under ODOP. Photo: Special arrangementArtisans and weavers were initially hesitant to adopt online sales. Sehgal, however, came up with a solution. He says, “We now hand-hold them via various schemes and also, through the process of identifying the right products, creating a listing, and other aspects of selling on various e-commerce platforms and fairs (melas).”ODOP has been assisting artisans transition to online sales in both rural and urban areas.Vinita Prasad is another beneficiary of the ODOP online programme. She is based in Lucknow and specialises in chikankari and zardori work. She says that since the lockdown, her sales had gone down by 60%. She had an Instagram account to sell some of her work online. However, before the lockdown, she never “took it seriously”.She says, “We understood the importance of moving online only after the lockdown.” Her products, under the ODOP, are now on both Flipkart and Amazon.Also read: Eminent Artistes Receive Eviction Notices to Vacate Government Housing in DelhiWork so farAt least 60 awareness workshops have been conducted across 60 districts of Uttar Pradesh till now. Additionally, Amazon.in participates in promotional events like ODOP Regional Summits and Udhyam Samagams wherein it conducts awareness sessions on e-commerce. So far, Amazon.in has attended approximately 80 such events. Amazon.in has also created a separate microsite for ODOP products on its e-commerce portal.The UPHDMC (Uttar Pradesh Handicraft and Development Corporation) has launched an e-Market place www.odopmart.com to sell ODOP products. The department recently organised an online fair, “ODOP Mela”, for the benefit of artisans, traders and manufacturers. The department is also planning to organise a webinar on GI products from the state, around 50% being ODOP products.Terracotta idols from Gorakhpur being sold under ODOP. Photo: Special arrangementAccording to Sehgal, there are now 10,000-plus ODOP products available on Amazon.in, and products worth Rs 24 crores have been sold so far. Some other tie ups of ODOP are with Flipkart and eBay.The ODOP has also tied up with Quality Council of India (QCI), aimed at standardising ODOP products so that their quality can be ensured and NIFT to improve its designs.Plans to expand Despite the increasing turnover, Sehgal says that there is still a long way to go. He specifically wants to focus on the online venture and expand it. He says, “We are getting Uttar Pradesh Handicraft and Development Corporation (UPHDMC) on board to various e-commerce portals, which will act as an aggregator for ODOP artisans that don’t have a GSTIN number. We expect this to give the benefit of e-commerce to a large number of artisans.”