It is said that history repeats itself. There was time when a weekly visit to a Haat (local market) was a must for our grand parents to pick up vegetables and fruits from the farmers themselves and BMH begins his journey following the same old principal with an aim to promote organic products back in demand. This initiative was first started by Mr Arup Raksh*t , an orator and organic food activis
t with the help of his wife and they arranged their 1st Haat at Garia Book Fair on 1st January 2015. This Haat successfully runned for 7 days. From then on under strong financial constraints and without any help from external resources one after another Haat was organized in different places all over West Bengal and Calcutta like Jorashakho Thakur Bari, Loksilpa Mela, Bardhaman Town Hall, Bagbazar Children’s Park, P C Chandra Garden , Newtown, Tollyguage, Russa Road, Chetla, Behala etc . From 6th December 2015 onwards the Haat started running on weekly basis on every Sunday at Seva Kendra Kolkata Entally. This overall journey is only possible for the constant support from local farmers, handcraft artisans, different SHG Group, some NGO’s and few like minded people. In due course many people joined the movement volunteered and some simultaneously left but the Haat gradually gains its popularity and Bish Mukta Haat soon becomes an open platform for many marginal and poor organic farmers and craftsman. The credit mainly goes to those farmers who regularly visited the Haat from remotest places of West Bengal. They often had to spent their night in railway station to attend next morning Haat . Sometimes their selling is good while other times many products remain unsold and they have to take them back. But inspite of unpredictable sales, profit and loss their support always remains with us.
