Bhardwaj launches Meerut artisan push for Vishwakarma Day

MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj has launched the Meerut Vishwakarma Artisan Outreach to enroll traditional craftsmen in the PM Vishwakarma scheme ahead of Vishwakarma Puja. The program targets toolkit support, training and credit for artisans across five key trades as Meerut looks to formalize its workshop economy.

Why it matters: - Meerut’s artisan economy spans sports goods, scissors, gold work, leather goods, carpentry and metalworking, and the new outreach is designed to move those workers into formal identity, training and credit channels. - The program could affect thousands of traditional craftsmen across all 90 municipal wards, 12 tehsils and 663 villages in the district. - The effort matters for local livelihoods because the PM Vishwakarma scheme offers toolkit support, skill training and collateral-free loans that many workshop workers have historically lacked.

What happened: - MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj announced the Meerut Vishwakarma Artisan Outreach on the eve of Vishwakarma Puja. - The constituency-level program will enroll Meerut artisans in the PM Vishwakarma scheme. - Bhardwaj said the initiative is aimed at taking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vishwakarma scheme to every ward and village in Meerut. - The outreach is part of a wider constituency-development platform that also includes the Viksit Meerut 2027 charter and the Western UP Sports Industry Council.

The details: - The outreach focuses on five major artisan pillars: sports goods, Kainchi Bazaar scissors makers, gold and jewellery workers, leather goods makers, and carpentry and metalworking trades. - The sports-goods cluster is described as Meerut’s largest single beneficiary, with the district serving as an ODOP hub and a major export center. - Kainchi Bazaar scissors makers are being linked to a GI-revival effort tied to the cluster’s heritage and brand identity. - The Sarafa Bazaar gold market and allied workshops are slated to be onboarded through the goldsmith trade category. - Leather workers, including shoe, bag, glove and military-accessory makers, will be covered through the cobbler trade category. - Rural carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, locksmiths and stone carvers will be reached through district-level tehsil and village delivery. - The program will use ward-wise enumeration with the Meerut Municipal Corporation and 12 Block Development Officers to create an integrated artisan registry. - Enrollment targets are 50,000 artisans on the PM Vishwakarma portal by 31 December 2026 and 1,00,000 by 31 March 2027. - Each enrolled artisan is expected to receive a PM Vishwakarma toolkit or equivalent upgrade grant within 60 days, routed through the MSME Tool Room and Development Centre in Meerut and District Industries Centre field offices. - Skill training will be delivered through PMKVY-aligned modules at the MSME-TDC Meerut campus and satellite locations in Sardhana, Mawana and Partapur. - The skill-training target is 25,000 artisans by 31 March 2027. - The credit stack includes the PM Vishwakarma loans, MUDRA-Shishu, MUDRA-Kishore and MUDRA-Tarun loans, with the goal of ₹250 crore in new artisan credit by 31 March 2027. - The program also includes PMEGP support for artisans ready to move from household workshops to micro-enterprises. - Brand-building and market linkage will run through export and e-commerce partners, including quality certification and buyer-delegation programs.

Between the lines: - The outreach is built as a formalization drive, not just a welfare program, because it links registration, tooling, training, credit and market access in sequence. - The focus on five trade pillars shows where Meerut’s artisan base is deepest and where informal work has been most exposed to weak credit access. - The class-neutral design is meant to cover workers across communities and avoid caste- or religion-based filtering in enrollment. - The program also appears to be a political and administrative effort to align Meerut’s workshop economy with the government’s broader MSME and Viksit Bharat 2047 agenda.

What’s next: - Ward-wise enumeration will begin through municipal and block-level coordination. - More artisans are expected to be enrolled, trained and linked to credit through 2027. - The outreach will work with export bodies, certification agencies and online marketplaces to move artisan products into wider domestic and overseas markets. - Bhardwaj signaled that the goal is to reach every artisan in Meerut’s wards and villages.

The bottom line: - Meerut’s Vishwakarma outreach is a district-scale effort to turn centuries-old workshop trades into a registered, financed and market-linked artisan economy.