The Union Ministry of Textiles on Sunday marked the second National Handloom Day with a series of events in the Prime Minister’s constituency Varanasi during which weavers were awarded and a number of MoUs were inked in the presence of Union Minister Smriti Irani Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed a MoU with Textiles Ministry to bring a new paradigm shift in the handloom industry in Varanasi at the celebrations of National Handloom Day.
The key objective of this partnership is to enhance the earnings of handloom weavers and to establish “Bunker ka Hunar”.
Another key objective of this partnership is to chalk out a new strategy for promoting production and marketing of high value quality handloom products. Union Minister for Textiles, Smriti Irani was also present at the program.
A special focus has been on reviving the handloom clusters in the North Eastern States also. Handloom sector is part of Textile industry which is the largest economic activity after agriculture.
About 43 lakh people are engaged in hand weaving and allied activities. Geographically, workforce distribution is highly concentrated with 60.5 percent (16.83 lakhs) of Handlooms or weaver households located in northeast India.
Expressing his optimism MoS for MSDE Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, “Our weavers and their skills will weave India’s new story of culture and tradition for handloom in the country,”
The partnership assures that the two Ministries will collaborate and cooperative jointly, to undertake various skill development and entrepreneurship development programmes for handloom weavers through knowledge sharing, resource optimization and synergy of institutions, he also mentioned.
“We must revive interest in these skills and make all traditional skills viable, paying and valued. This will bring about entrepreneurial and managerial capability and skills of IT and financial planning which will change the way how young loom craftsperson organise their traditional skills into aspiring businesses and bring about the true bunkar ka hunar se rojgar,” Rudy added.
Presently 28 weaver’s service centres (WSCs) across the country are providing technical assistance to handloom weavers by carrying out Design development and Research and development in handloom machineries and equipment including processing.