Swadesh Darshan Scheme

#GS-01 Indian Heritage

Swadesh Darshan Scheme:

Swadesh Darshan Scheme is a Central Sector scheme under the Ministry of Tourism launched in 2014 -15.
It has been created for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits in the country.
The Ministry of Tourism will provide Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations for infrastructure development of circuits under this scheme.
The Kerala Tourism Department is likely to highlight Beypore ‘Uru’ in the detailed project report (DPR) to be submitted to the Centre for the Swadesh Darshan project.

Beypore is a historic port town on the banks of Chaliyar and is part of the present-day Kozhikode district in Kerala.
The name Uru is derived from the 1500 years old traditional ship building culture of Kerala.
An Uru is a wooden dhow handmade mainly from Malabar teak and can even be considered as the biggest handicraft in the world.
This type of boat has been used by the Arabs since ancient times mostly as trading vessels and rarely as a passenger
Even now, urus are being manufactured and exported from Beypore to the Arab nations.
It takes a team of fifty men one to four years to build each Uru and the entire process is done by hand.
The Khalasis are the traditional artisans responsible for the manufacture of the Uru.
Most of these artisans involved in Uru-making are over 50-70 years old and have been in the profession for generations and have gained the knowledge from their father.
The Beypore Urus are seen as a symbol of Kerala’s trade relations and friendship with the Gulf countries.