Welfare Schemes for Weavers of Varanasi

Welfare Schemes for Weavers of Varanasi

 

In the Budget 2014-15, the Government announced setting up of Trade FacilitationCentre and Crafts Museum (TFC&CM) at Varanasi to develop and promote handloom products and carry forward the rich tradition of handlooms of Varanasi. The estimated cost of project is  Rs.300 crores. The first phase of the Project consisting of Crafts Museum, Entrance Plaza and Shopping arcade has been inaugurated on 22^nd December, 2016.  

Ten block level clusters have been sanctioned in different blocks/urban areas of Varanasi at a total project cost of Rs.7.89 crore with Central share of Rs.7.70 crore and first installment of Rs.5.12 crore released, covering 4129 weavers. 

Nine Common Facility Centres (CFCs) alongwith Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been set up in different blocks/urban areas to provide facilities like training, yarn, dyeing, warping, IT-enabled services etc. CSC provides services like banking, Aadhaar Card, e-commerce, e-ticketing, Mobile charging etc. So far, more than 21000 persons have benefitted. 

The Government has taken several steps to help weavers in opening bank accounts and taking benefits of digital payment modes.  The Common Facility Centres have taken banking services to the door step of handloom weavers.  Several camps have been held in Varanasi to train the handloom weavers in accessing digital payment modes. 307 such camps were organised in Varanasi in which 12,502 persons participated. Micro-ATM/Banking Correspondent(BC) facility was extended in association with various Banks for easy withdrawal of money.  National Handloom Development Corporation has also implemented e-Dhaga Mobile App which has facility of making online payment for purchase of yarn. E-commerce players have been facilitated to work with handloom weavers of Varanasi with the arrangements that the sale proceeds are transferred into their bank accounts. 

The above information was given by the Union Textiles Minister, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani today, in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.