JALPAIGURI HANDICRAFT PRODUCER COMPANY LIMITED

If you head over to Mohalla Uttar Matiali, near the Lataguri post, you’ll find us at Kamini Roy’s place. Jalpaiguri Handicraft Producer Company Limited is basically a group of local folks working on different crafts. It’s not a big factory or a shiny corporate building. We work from this area because it’s where we live and where the materials are. Lataguri is a quiet enough place, though it gets visitors for the forest nearby. Our setup is pretty simple. We spend most of our time organizing the different handicraft pieces that the producers bring in. There’s a lot of back and forth between the members. Some days the place is full of finished items, and other days we are just waiting on supplies. It’s a local effort, really. We don't have a big marketing team or anything like that. It’s just us trying to make sure the work gets seen and sold. Kamini Roy’s house serves as a central point for us to meet and sort through things. Sometimes the weather makes it hard to move items around, especially during the rains. We just take it day by day. Everyone knows everyone else in the Mohalla, so it feels more like a community project than a strict business. We’re just regular people from Jalpaiguri doing what we know how to do with our hands. It’s a lot of work but it keeps the tradition going.