News
TRH visit Jaipur
30th March 2006
The last day of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall's two-week foreign tour took them to the northern desert state of Rajasthan where The Prince saw Jaipur‘s walled Old City and The Duchess visited a Montessori school.
The Prince was swamped with garlands during his walkabout through the tiny streets of Jaipur.
With every few paces he took, another local family was waiting to hang the rings of fuchsia pink roses around his neck and mark his forehead with a tikka.
He was being shown the work of the Jaipur Virasat Foundation, which is helping to preserve the Old City‘s heritage with its sensitive restoration of one of the city's old streets.
The Foundation, of which The Prince is Patron, is aware that India – and Rajasthan in particular – possesses a wealth of cultural assets that will soon be lost if practical ways are not found to conserve them.
By helping and encouraging others to find ways of conservation, the Foundation generates employment and cultural rejuvenation for the area.
During his tour, The Prince was shown a sweet maker, a bangle maker shop and went to a small park to see some of the local crafts people at work, as well as visiting a Jain temple.
The Duchess, meanwhile, met children at the Palace School and signed a visitors‘ book.
After meeting youngsters in their classrooms and enjoying the school environment, The Duchess said: "I think I‘ve missed my vocation."
She said as she sat next to seven-year-old Manu: "He looks horrified."
But the youngster declared he did not mind her company. "I enjoyed it," he said afterwards.
Whilst in Jaipur, The Prince met with an international task force of business executives to discuss how business can help tackle rural development and poverty in India.
The 15 person Task Force, organised and led by The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), shared their conclusions with The Prince on how business can contribute to community development projects in India.
The meeting was the finale to the Task Force‘s five day visit of the subcontinent to examine how companies can use their core business to help tackle the problems of rural development.
The Prince said that he hoped business leaders would see the value of integrated approaches to rural development.
He said: "It is important that businesses become more involved, and they could learn from examples of holistic development and try to initiate more models that can become good practice in sustainable development."
Later in the day, The Prince and The Duchess returned to the UK after their two-week overseas tour, which took them to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India.