'Common Facility Centres to help 1 lac weavers upgrade skills'

Union Textiles Minister Santosh Gangwar today laid the foundation stone of seven handloom common facility centres here, which will help one lakh weavers from the city upgrade their skills.
"The centres will help Varanasi's one lakh weavers in upgrading their skills and thereby in empowering themselves," Gangwar said.
The minister also said a National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) subcentre is being planned in Varanasi.
The common facility centres (CFCs) are being set up in Varanasi Mega Handloom Cluster, under the Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme. These centres will provide infrastructural and other kinds of support to groups of handloom weavers at block level.

Such facilities will include a godown for storage of raw material and finished products and an office with internet connectivity, for providing benefits of IT-based interventions including benefits of financial inclusion under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana to each handloom weaver.
The Centres will also include a room, for accommodation of designers/bulk buyers from urban areas who may like to stay in the production area for a day or two; along with facilities for training in design, dyeing and weaving in the form of common shed.
The centres will be set up preferably by strengthening existing infrastructure in the primary weavers' cooperative societies, running in profit, in the area.