The Government has taken the following steps proactively to address the issues arising out of pandemic.
- Ministry of Textiles has requested the States and UTs for their State Handloom Corporations/Co-operatives/Agencies to make purchases of the finished inventory available with the handloom weavers/artisans.
- Steps have been taken to on-board weavers on Government e-Market place 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, 128 Handloom Producer companies have been formed in different States.
- Under Concessional Credit/Weaver MUDRA Scheme, financial assistance is provided as follows:
a. Margin money assistance
- @ 20% of loan amount, subject to maximum of Rs. 25,000/- per weaver,
- @ 20% of loan amount, subject to maximum of Rs. 20.00 lakh (@ Rs. 2.00 lakh for every 100 weaver/worker) per handloom organization,
b. Interest subvention upto 7% for 3 years; and
c. Credit Guarantee on loans for 3 years
- Design Resource Centres have been set up in Weavers’ Service Centres at Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati and Kancheepuram, 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 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.
- Raw Material Supply Scheme is being implemented throughout the country to make available Yarn to Handloom weavers. Under the Scheme, freight charges are reimbursed for all types of yarn; and component of 15% price subsidy is there for cotton hank yarn, domestic silk, wool and linen yarn and blended yarn of natural fibres, with quantity caps.
- 534 number of Chaupals were organized in various States to educate the weavers to avail benefits of various handloom schemes for their welfare and socio-economic development.
- To promote e-marketing of handloom products, 23 e-commerce entities have been engaged for online marketing of handloom products.
- Marketing platform is provided to the handloom agencies/weavers by organizing marketing expos/ events to sell their products.