Government to aid scheduled caste handloom weavers

NSFDC under the ministry of social justice and empowerment and Development Commissioner (handlooms) signed the MoU in the presence of Thaawarchand Gehlot, union minister of social justice and empowerment and Smriti Irani, union minister of textiles.

Handlooms sector is a part of the textile industry, which is the second largest economic activity after agriculture in India. There are around 44 lakh handloom weavers in the country out of which 3.90 lakh are SC weavers. Under the cluster approach, new strategy for promoting production and marketing of high value quality handloom products shall be adopted to ensure more earnings of the SC handloom weavers.

In this endeavour, both the MoU signing parties shall popularise the schemes of Development Commissioner (handlooms) amongst the SC weavers through awareness programmes and advertisements in electronic/print media in SC weavers concentrated areas and collaborate for capacity building including skill upgradation and economic development of SC weavers and their families for achieving the desired outcome. Exhibitions/fairs shall be organised by both the parties for providing marketing assistance to SC weavers for enhancing their earnings.

Both the parties shall also organise relevant skill development programmes for upgradation of skills of the SC weavers in clusters and also for sharing knowledge and experience. This endeavour shall enable SC weavers to sharpen their skills for production and marketing of high value quality handloom products and better marketing linkages and therefore to have more income. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India