The handloom sector is a part of the National Textile Policy 2000. The Government of India is following a policy of promoting and encouraging the Handloom Sector through a number of programmes and schemes to increase production, productivity and efficiency and enhance the income and socio-economic status of weavers by upgrading their skills and providing infrastructure and marketing support and essential inputs.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Textiles, Smt. Panabaaka Lakshmi in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today to a question raised by Shri Prabhat Jha and Shrimati Kusum Rai.
The Minister further stated that to improve the socio-economic status of handloom weavers including weavers of minority community, the Government of India is implementing the following five schemes during the XI Five Year Plan all over the country:
Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme (IHDS) This scheme provides need based inputs to a “Cluster” of 300-500 Handloom or a “Group” of 10-100 weavers for making them self-sustainable by providing them financial assistance for margin money, working capital, new looms and accessories, skill upgradation, marketing opportunities and for construction of workshed.
Handloom Weavers' Comprehensive Welfare Scheme This comprises of two separate schemes viz. the Health Insurance Scheme (HIS) for providing Health Insurance to the Handloom weavers and Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana (MGBBY) for providing Life Insurance Cover in case of natural/ accidental death, total/partial disability due to accident.
Marketing & Export Promotion Scheme (MEPS) This scheme provides marketing opportunities and infrastructure support through design development and marketing linkages to assist in the sale of the Handloom products both in domestic and international market.
Mill Gate Price Scheme This scheme makes available all types of yarn at Mill Gate Price to the eligible handloom agencies to facilitate regular supply of basic raw material to the handloom weavers and to optimize their employment potential.
Diversified Handloom Development Scheme This scheme provides assistance for technological and skill upgradation of weavers for design and product development through 25 Weavers' Service Centres and 05 Indian Institutes of Handloom Technology all over the country to improve the productivity and earnings of the handloom weavers.
In addition to the above, the Government of India has taken up 4 Mega Handloom Clusters at Sivasagar (Assam), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)Virudhunagar (Tamilnadu) and Murshidabad (West Bengal) with a maximum project cost of Rs. 70.00 crore each for overall and holistic development of more than 25000 handlooms.
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