Presently, 950 artisans (from about 300 families) are involved in this occupation from these 4 villages pertains to proposed Mohanpur Sabai Cluster. Mohanpur abounds in this nature’s gift. A dominant household industry in these parts is the making of Sabai Grass Ropes. Also the local artisans make daily use items & artifacts from Sabai Grass & Palm leaves. Sabai plays an important role as a liveli
hood in this region and apart from providing employment opportunities to the artisans this industry is shown to provide earning opportunities to non-artisans also especially during slack season when agricultural activities are not there, as the rope production carries on year around. However, this important industry is bogged down with several problems like obsolete/absent technology, paucity of finance, little diversity of the products, lack of marketing facilities, competition from plastic products, etc., to name a few. Requirement of high level of skill with latest machinery/technology, Market linkage to high end users and lack of profitability due to middlemen are the major reasons for the artisan’s turn away from this and youth not being attracted towards this craft. There is a need to revive this industry and protect this craft from dying by introduction of latest machinery/technologies; product diversification and establishing required forward and backward linkages to make it a profitable livelihood option. These villages are around the proposed within 1- 2 km distance of Mohanpur, where the cluster is proposed to be established.
