Khadi witnesses 37.1 per cent growth in production in last four years: KVIC

Khadi has increased its fabric production by 38.30 million sq metres, registering 37.1 per cent growth, in the last four years, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has said.

It said it has made the jump from 103.22 million square metres to 141.52 million sq metres.

This increase happened after the KVIC encouraged the registration of new Khadi Institutions and laid stress upon the artisan-centric programmes like distribution of 31,000 New Model Charkhas and 5,600 modern looms since 2015," KVIC said in a release.

As per KVIC's audit report, the Khadi fabric production during the same fiscal was 103.22 million square metres which was a bit higher than 4 per cent of the overall production, KVIC said.

"In fiscal 2017-18, the production tally witnessed a steep jump of 38.30 million square meters (an average jump of 37.10 per cent) in Khadi sector fabric production. In fiscal 2017-18, while the mill sector fabric production was 2,157 million square meters, the Khadi sector fabric production was 141.52 million square meters, which was more than 6.5 per cent share of the overall fabric production in the country," KVIC said in the release.

Commenting on the feat, KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said the steep rise in Khadi sector fabric production is due to the repeated appeals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt Khadi.

He said the credit goes to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which outlined and implemented many policies and programmes to attract the artisans which is backbone of Khadi sector.

"We started registration of new Khadi institutions for widening the scope for employment as well as the revival of defunct Khadi institutions. From 2015-16, altogether 38,684 new Khadi artisans have been added till October 10 this year, consequently raising the artisans number to 4,94,684. Even 376 new Khadi institutions have also been added during this span of time," he said.

"A total of 92,841 new employment have been created in the Khadi sector during the last four years," Saxena said.