New Delhi: Boosting the handloom sector country-wide, the Centre received the proposal of 294 more Block Level Clusters (BLCs) under the National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP) from state governments, textile minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Friday.
These BLCs further cover 1.6 lakh handloom weavers across the India, she added. In the last five financial years, the textile ministry has sanctioned a total of Rs 165.99 core. Centre funds 90 per cent for the diagnostic study, corpus for raw material etc.,
whereas components like lighting units, technological upgradation of looms and accessories are also included under the Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS). Other components such as the creation of infrastructure for design studio or marketing complex or the garment unit, marketing development, assistance for exports and publicity are also 80 per cent funded by the ministry, Irani mentioned.
Total of eight Mega Handloom Clusters (MHCs) in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Sivasagar (Assam), Virudhunagar(Tamil Nadu), Murshidabad (West Bengal), Prakasam and Guntur districts (Andhra Pradesh), Godda and neighbouring districts (Jharkhand), Bhagalpur (Bihar) and Trichy (Tamil Nadu) have also been taken up for development under the CHCDS.
The scheme is targeted at the development of MHCs in clearly identifiable geographical locations, covering at least 15,000 handlooms with the Centre's contribution of up to Rs 40 crore per cluster for five years.
The textile ministry has been implementing training and skill development in all segments of the textile sector across all value chains, with a view for capacity building and employment generation in the sector.
In the span of seven years (2010 to 2017), 11.14 lakh persons have been provided training under the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS) in the textile sector, the minister informed the Lower House. 8.43 lakh, among them, were given employment. Tamil Nadu has got the highest employment of 1,79,350 persons, where Karnataka is in the second position with 1,27,676 persons, followed by Uttar Pradesh (1,16,671) and Gujarat (1,11,166).
Published On : 06-12-2019
Source : Millennium Post
