Nobel laureate economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, accompanied by a film director, a fashion designer and an animation designer visited some handlooms run by the local weavers at a village in East Burdwan yesterday aiming to promote Bengal’s traditional handloom products.

Banerjee and his team reached Beninagar village in Ketugram and enquired about the distress the weaver community faced during the Covid-19 lockdown. Two years ago, Banerjee came to know about Beninagar after he purchased a Panjabi (kurta) at a craft fair in France.

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On inquiry, designer Saket Dheer told Banerjee that the ‘finest’ cloth of that Panjabi was produced by the Beninagar weavers in East Burdwan.

He said: “I’ve come here to study and learn how a road map to revitalize the fate of these marginal weaver’s communities can be prepared and how a global attention can be achieved to help overall economic growth of the community.” About a thousand weavers are still surviving against the odd circumstances at six villages centering Beninagar in Katwa’s Ketugram.