On the lines of the loan waiver given to farmers, the government is considering implementing a waiver scheme for weavers across the country, said Mr Dayanidhi Maran, the Union Textiles Minister.
Mr Maran was replying to a question during question hour in the Lower House of Parliament and that the proposal has been placed with the Finance Ministry and is under active consideration.
Mr Maran informed the house that the government had introduced an insurance scheme for weavers, in which 1.7 million weavers had been enrolled in the previous fiscal year and 1.8 million had availed of the scheme in the current fiscal year.
He added by saying that, there were 2.52 million handloom units as per available data and that most of these were functional, except for a few in Orissa and Kerala. He further informed that 733 handloom cooperative societies in Orissa and 68 in Kerala were non-functional.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India