Mera Joota Hai Khadi: Agra Footwear Industry Gives Sole To "Vocal For Local", Goes For Khadi

In an innovative move towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Agra footwear industry is all set to embrace the use of Khadi for manufacturing trendy samples.

Giving an alternative to customers outside of leather and synthetic material, the Agra footwear industry has created an enormous room for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for "Vocal for Local''.

Even more encouraging is a trend being blended with Khadi for the manufacture of footwear. Manufacturers of the Agra footwear industry have decided to use Indian embellishment crafts and indigenous embroidery styles to enhance the visual texture of the footwear.

These would be used on Khadi to make the footwear attractive, long lasting, and folksy in appeal. This report mentions that samples of block prints, Kantha work, and prints of Madhubani art have been sent to The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

The move is bound to open the industry to more and craftspersons, designs and styles from within India's rich thread-craft practising groups and artisans.

One of the people behind this initiative, Shruti Kaul, has been quoted saying that she is making efforts to include representation of samples and styles from across India. The manufacturing will begin after the samples are approved by KVIC.

Pooran Dawar, president, Agra Footwear and Manufacturers Chamber has said that the opportunity of using Khadi for footwear has come to them at a time when the footwear industry of Agra accounts for 65 per cent of the domestic market. The footwear can be washed by hand.The manufacturers will also be aiming for the export market.