PIB News Update: Under various schematic interventions for handloom workers including women workers throughout the country, financial assistance is provided to the eligible handloom agencies/weavers for raw materials, purchase of upgraded looms & accessories, design innovation & product diversification, infrastructure development, marketing of handloom products in domestic as well as overseas markets, Mudra loans at concessional rates, etc. Further, 100% subsidy is given to women weavers for construction of individual workshed. Kamladevi Chattopadhyay Award has been instituted specifically for women weavers.
To overcome the challenges being faced by handloom workers, the Government has taken following steps for their welfare and to promote handloom: –
- To support the handloom sector and to enable wider market for handloom weavers, steps have been taken to on-board weavers on Government e-Market place (GeM) to enable them to sell their products directly to various Government Departments and organizations. So far about 1.50 Lakh weavers have been on-boarded on the GeM portal.
- To enhance productivity, marketing capabilities and ensure better incomes, 125 Handloom Producer companies have been formed in different States.
- Under Concessional Credit/Weaver MUDRA Scheme, margin money assistance at 20% of the loan amount subject to a maximum of Rs. 10,000/- per weaver, interest subvention upto 7% and credit guarantee fees on loans for a period of three (3) years are given.
- Design Resource Centres (DRCs) have been set up in Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs) at Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati, through NIFT with the objective to build and create design-oriented excellence in the Handloom Sector and to facilitate weavers, exporters, manufacturers and designers access design repositories for sample/product improvisation and development.
- To promote marketing of handloom products, Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC) has been organizing International Fairs in virtual mode. During the year 2020-21, 12 handloom fairs were organized in virtual mode. Besides, domestic marketing events were also organized in different parts of the country for the weavers to market and sell their products.
This information was given in a written reply by the Minister of State for Textiles Smt. DarshanaJardosh in Lok Sabha today.