Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG) has helped establish a Common Facility Centre to help potters in a Tamil Nadu village meet modern consumer demands such as Microwaveable Cooking Utensils.

These products have higher market value and will help sustain the traditional potters.

Many traditional potters’ families are economically poor and living Below Poverty Line. To increase the earning of the artisans, modern machinery is introduced alongside additional skill and product training to improve not only the productivity but also the wages of the artisans.

IIT Madras is aiding in implementing the Common Facility Centre at Perumudivakkam in Tiruvallur District, located about 50 kilometres from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The Key Outcomes envisaged from this Common Facility Centre include:

• Three to four fold increase in income for potters
• Products from integrated pottery technologies draw four times more than the market value of traditional pottery items
• Immense market opportunity and export quality for these products
• Provides entrepreneurial avenues for trainees through hands on training experience as well as guidance through training manuals
• Encourages adoption and scaling up such initiatives in other pottery clusters across the state

A total of 82 persons have been trained in this centre so far in hard and soft skills pertaining to the production of various types of clay products. The District Collector Dr. Alby John distributed their certificates during the function.

The trained potters exhibited diversified clay products which included household appliances, microwaveable clay products with higher market values, artistic products, cooking utensils and storage containers.

The awareness and training programs on producing clay products including microwaveable pottery through the integrated pottery manufacturing unit derived key attention that few trainees are motivated to set up their own pottery units while tapping  support from the new established CFC.