The Ministry of Minority Affairs has launched a new scheme ‘Upgrading The Skills And Training In Traditional Arts/ Crafts For Development’ (USTTAD), which inter-alia, aims to preserve heritage of traditional arts and crafts of minorities and build capacity of traditional crafts persons and artisans. The scheme aims at capacity building and updating the traditional skills of master crafts persons and artisans.

Under the scheme, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has entrusted a project to NIFT with the objective of training and upgrading skills of craft persons belonging to the minority communities thereby preserving traditional ancestral arts/crafts being practiced by them. NIFT as knowledge partner for USTTAD has identified crafts predominantly practiced by minority communities and supports the Ministry of Minority Affairs through various activities like documenting the crafts, setting standards for defining “master-craftsperson” or “USTAAD” for identified crafts, development of course curriculum of product development and Design Workshops for potential crafts persons and trainees, product range development and facilitating linkages with e-marketing portals for providing platforms for selling developed products.