Katha Today

Present-day katha stitch is used on different exotic fabric like Tassaur Silk, Muga, or Bangalore Silk or simple cotton with complex and exotic design, which gained high popularity within Bangladesh, India and abroad. Katha is very popular with elite tourists visiting the Bengal. Even internationally there is a demand for this art and there are companies working with women from the villages, giving them a way to earn. However, even with such demand this art form is still at the risk of being lost again.

Bangladesh government has taken steps to create a vast indicator to represent the traditional sources on artistic work to enlarge the embroidery textile market. Recently Bangladesh Handloom Board finalized Tk. 21.13 billion projects in this connection. The construction of the hub is

expected to be finished by 2023 and will be located across two upazilas of Jamalpur.

Once completed, the 300-acre hub to be known as ‘Sheikh Hasina Nokshi Palli,’ would accommodate almost 1,200 entrepreneurs while tripling the production of embroidery items in the country.

The aim of the project is to create employment opportunities, especially for women through rehabilitant weaves and ‘Nokshi’ (design) entrepreneurs, supplying raw materials at reasonable prices, using local jute products in handloom industry and utilizing the talent of local artists. This would be one of the biggest government projects for the whole textile sector in the country and it will help create a bigger market for embroidered textiles while generating more than three hundred thousand additional jobs. Creating katha’s gave opportunities to many women, who would otherwise struggle and it’s is really fulfilling to know that the government is doing something to help these people and keep the art alive.

‘Nokshi Kantha’ or embroidered quilt, which has found a place within the urban middle and upper-class people in recent years. It has a lot of untapped potentials and it can go a long way if backed with systematic government patronage and appropriate facilities.

(Image curtesy: https://worldvisionadvocacy.

(Image Courtesy: Dhaka Tribune)

Bengal Foundation organized an exhibition of Nakshi Kantha at Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhanmondi in 2014 to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin.