kolkata care to carry designer bags decorative bottleholders cool wine bags hot beach sacks and eyecatching wallets a range of fashion accessories is currently being stitched out of jute by the likes of soma sarkar a housewife from kakdwip and bashudeb pattanayek a teastall owner in bishnupur at national institute of fashion technology nift kolkata the national jute board under the ministry of textiles has collaborated with kolkatas premier fashion institute to encourage the unemployed and the poor to experiment and convert base jute fabrics into products that fetch them high value in the market nift director bibekananda banerjee said the emergence of new designs and valueadded products will help multiply jute exports from the country around 20 people from the districts of bengal are participating in the 21day training six such trainings will be conducted over three years all these people barely make a living once they are trained in making jute products they will be hired in the industry said ruhee das chowdhury department of fashion design nift it has been some time since jute became a designer material but jute factories in bengal have been closing down because the products are not marketed we at nift have taken this opportunity for design innovation and product development of bengal jute the director said we are teaching them tailoring patternmaking providing inputs on colour combinations and elements of design ruhee said the key objective of the programme is to train the students by providing formal contemporary design entrepreneurship and product development orientation through strategic designtechnologyskill management programmes and regular workshops