Kolkata: Remember those famous lines (Haat Boseche Sukrobare Bakshiganje Padmapare) from Rabindranath Tagore's poem Haat where the weekly market popularly known as haat was held every Friday. Now, this haat will be held every Sunday on the banks of the large waterbody beside Nalban Food Park. (Ekhane Haat Bosbe Rabibare Nalban'er Jhiler Dhare).
An initiative by the State Fisheries Development Corporation, the move is aimed at giving people an experience of a rural haat right in the heart of the city. The haat will start after the Panchayat polls.
Apart from a variety of vegetables, fruits, fish and meat at a subsidised rate, handicraft products made by rural craftsmen will be sold through the Self-Help Groups.
"Haats are still very popular in rural areas. We want to give the urbane populace the real feel and ambience of a rural haat,'" said Soumyajit Das, Managing Director of SFDC. The poor artisans of the state enrolled under the Anandadhara scheme of the state government will be given a platform to display and sell their products.
The agenda of the Anandadhara scheme is to mobilise the rural poor and vulnerable people into the self-managed, federated institutions and support them for livelihood collectives.
Women associated with Self-Help Groups who often struggle to get space for selling their products made by them will now be given space in the haat.
"We hope this haat will offer them a platform for some sort of upliftment in their livelihood. They will be able to sell their products to those who have a reasonably good standard of living," a senior SFDC official added.
The Nalban Food Park located beside the waterbody is a major crowd-puller with a chain of specialty restaurants including All Fish Restaurant of the SFDC. During weekends, a good number of people drop in to dine here. "They will be natural visitors to the haat," the official said.