The move of starting the center at the railway station is in line with the government’s proposition of giving a boost to the local toy manufacturing and promote the industry.
February 18, 2021
A display-cum-promotion center for the well-known Channapatna toys and other local handicrafts has been opened at the railway station at Channapatna in Bengaluru Railway Division. This initiative is taken to create awareness and provide a platform to artisans.
Channapatna Toys’ Artisans’ Association along with the Bengaluru railway division, transformed an abandoned stall at the station.
Interestingly, known as the Toy City of Karnataka, Channapatna is particularly popular for its handmade lacquer wooden toys.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to applaud the move to promote the indigenous toys and handicraft at Channapatna station in Karnataka. He added that this will promote the local toy manufacturing cluster.
“This initiative will be taken up at a much bigger level at Yeshwantpur station in collaboration with the government. It is part of the railways’ efforts to showcase indigenous toys at stations to promote Atmanirbhar Bharat. We had distributed over 40,000 Channapatna toys to kids returning home from Shramik Special trains [during the lockdown months],” Bengaluru divisional railway manager Ashok Kumar Verma said.
It may be recalled here that PM Shri Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme in August 2020 had referred to the brightly coloured Channapatna toys while touching upon for promotion of indigenous toys and giving a call for India to emerge as a global toy hub.
