Meghalaya's textiles dept wins sustainability award at Bharat Tex 2025

Frederick Roy Kharkongor, principal secretary, Department of Textiles, Meghalaya, accepted the special award at the CITI Textiles Sustainability Awards 2024-25 from Pabitra Margherita, Union Minister of State for Textiles, the Ministry of Textiles said in a press release.

The event also featured awardees' best practices and Earth Loom—Threads of Heritage, a sustainable fashion showcase highlighting India’s heritage weaves, including collections from Meghalaya.

The jury was highly impressed with the remarkable efforts of the Meghalaya’s textiles department, towards textile heritage revival. The Textiles Heritage Reviver award by CITI—Alekh honours individuals and organisations towards’ initiatives taken for driving the revival of indigenous textile heritage, promoting sustainability, fostering innovation and empowering communities thorough impactful contributions to the sector.

Since 2019, the Meghalaya’s textile department has undertaken several key initiatives to promote the state’s textile heritage. In 2021, Umden-Diwon village in Ri Bhoi district was officially declared as Meghalaya’s first Eri Silk village. In 2022, the Design Innovation Research Centre (DIRC) was established to showcase the entire Ryndia value chain, from farm to fashion.

The department has been actively developing the Ryndia brand and advocating for a geographical indication (GI) tag. Other efforts include setting up the Eri Corner at Megh Tex, leveraging the Silk Samagra programme to support Eri farmers, and executing the Integrated Textile Tourism Project in Nongpoh. Additionally, an e-portal on Ryndia has been developed to enhance visibility.

To strengthen the industry, the department supports handloom cluster programmes, training and capacity-building initiatives, and design documentation through Woven Narratives. Indigenous weaves have been showcased at prestigious national and international platforms, including the Dubai Expo, International Sericulture Commission (ISC) Romana, Silk in Lyon, France 2022, G20 Craft Bazaar (Italy, Vietnam 2023), and Bharat Tex Global Expo 2024.

The department continues to support local production houses, designers, and entrepreneurs by providing opportunities to showcase their work. This has enhanced the visibility of Meghalaya’s hand spun, handwoven, eco-friendly, naturally dyed, and ethically sourced weaves, which are women-driven and organically produced—truly embodying the journey from thread to trend.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (SG)