(MINISTER OF TEXTILES) (SHRI ANAND SHARMA)
(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.378 TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.08.2011.
(a) & (b): As announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget for 2008-09 and 2009-10,four Mega Handloom Clusters at Varanasi
(Uttar Pradesh), Sivasagar (Assam), Murshidabad (West Bengal) and Virudhunagar (Tamil Nadu) have been taken up so far under the
Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme. Each mega cluster covers more than 25,000 handloom weavers.
Apart from this, 20 clusters have been taken up under Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Scheme, with each cluster
covering approximately 5000 handloom weavers. Further, under Integrated Handloom Development Scheme, the Ministry has taken up
546 clusters so far for development, with each cluster covering between 300 to 500 handloom weavers.
(c) & (d): The Finance Minister in the Budget for 2011-12 has provided a Financial Package of Rs.3000 crore, primarily for writing
off the overdue loans and for extending concessional credit to the handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Societies. This package covers
approximately 15000 handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Societies, benefiting 3 lakh weavers across the country. There is no proposal at
present to re-introduce Rebate Scheme to the handloom organizations to sell their products.
(e): The Government of India, Ministry of Textiles through office of the Development Commissioner for Handlooms is implementing
the following schemes for development of handlooms and welfare of weavers:
(i) Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme provides need based inputs to clusters of 300 – 500 handlooms or Groups of
10 – 100 weavers for making them self sustainable by providing them financial assistance for margin money, new looms and
accessories, skill up-gradation, marketing, construction of worksheds etc. So far, 546 Cluster projects and 1794 Group
Approach projects have been sanctioned during the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
(ii) Marketing and Export Promotion Scheme provides platform to the weavers and their organizations to participate in the
domestic as well as international trade events and sell their products directly to the buyers. So far, 2527 marketing events
have been sanctioned during the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
(iii) Handloom Weavers’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme: This comprises of two separate schemes viz. the Health Insurance Scheme (HIS)
for providing Health Insurance cover to the Handloom weavers and Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Bima Yojana (MGBBY) for providing Life
Insurance Cover in case of natural/ accidental death, total/partial disability due to accident. Under Health Insurance Scheme,
16.11 lakh families of handloom weavers and workers were covered during the policy period of 2009-10 and 9.03 lakh weavers’
families have been covered so far out of the proposed 17.97 lakh families of handloom weavers and workers during the policy
period 2010-11. Under MGBBY, 5.11 lakh handloom weavers were enrolled during 2009-10 and 5.21 lakh handloom weavers were enrolled
during 2010-11.
(iv) Mill Gate Price Scheme: This scheme makes available all types of yarn at Mill Gate Price to the eligible handloom agencies
to facilitate regular supply of basic raw material to the handloom weavers and to optimize their employment potential. During the
Eleventh Plan, so far 3893.62 lakh kg of yarn valuing Rs.3783.58 crore has been supplied to the handloom weavers under the Scheme.
(v) Diversified Handloom Development Scheme: This scheme provides assistance for technological and skill-upgradation of weavers
for design and product development through 25 Weavers’ Service Centres and 05 Indian Institutes of Handloom Technology all over
the country to improve the productivity and earnings of the handloom weavers.
