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Contact Base
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Making pottery, moulding a livelihood
tajkira begum is a kantha
artist from birbhum.
But she is also
an influencer. Her excellence in her craſt is
legendary, but her efforts at poverty alleviation
in her community by inspiring hundreds of
women to start micro-craſt enterprises like
her have transformed lives. Tajkira Begum is
part of initiatives by the unique organization
Contact Base, which has programmes
addressing poverty alleviation, gender equity,
health and hygiene, and environmental action
for sustainability. Believing strongly that
cultural factors shape a community’s needs and
that culture can be a driver of development,
it engages communities, especially youth,
to use their cultural heritage to strengthen
community identity and pride, and leverage
traditional knowledge and skills to augment
livelihood opportunities.
‘We found transforming traditional cultural
practices from fringe to core economic
activities alleviated poverty, empowered
women, fostered social inclusion and
developed ownership among communities
to pursue developmental goals. Improved
education, health and sanitation have been
key outcomes,’ says Ananya Bhattacharya, Co-
Founder and Director of Contact Base.
Founded by Amitava Bhattacharya in 2002
Contact Base was founded in 2002
with the aim of empowering rural
and indigenous communities
with the knowledge, skills and
resources to negotiate their rights
and use cultural capital as an asset
for inclusive development and
building peace. By safeguarding
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)
like performing arts and crafts, its
flagship initiative Art for Life has
transformed traditional cultural
skills to core economic activities
and socio-economically empowered
more than 60000 rural artists and
craftspersons in West Bengal, Bihar
and Rajasthan through grassroots
creative economy and village
cultural tourism.