Retail chains join hands with weavers in Varanasi

In a bid to boost textile clusters in the country, around eight retail chains and textile brands have decided to collaborate with a cluster of weavers in Varanasi to procure raw materials.

The retail chains which have decided to tie up with the weavers are Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Fab India, Calico, Advantage Shilpi and UP Exporters Association among others.

The collaboration between the Varanasi cluster, the biggest in the country with over 75,000 weavers, and the retail chains has been coordinated by Gandhinagar-based Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) under its Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Programme.

Under the arrangement, the retail chains have agreed to acquire a specific quantity of customised raw materials from the weavers on a regular and contractual basis, starting from this month. Fab India, on its part, has agreed to adopt 300 weavers from the cluster on a permanent basis.

The programme has found support with the National Handloom Development Corporation (NHDC), which has agreed to set up a mobile raw material centre for the weavers at a rate 20 per cent lower than the current market price.

EDI is planning to rope in student designers from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and National Institute of Design (NID) to interact with the weavers.

The ministry of textiles and the development commissioner of handlooms have committed Rs 800 crore for the development of textile clusters in the country this year, which has seen more than 20 organisations entering the textile cluster domain.

"Weavers in India are exploited by middlemen, who pay a paltry sum of Rs 80 a day for a garment that is sold at Rs 8,000 in the market.

A programme like this would help weavers interact directly with buyers and make financial transactions more transparent," said Dinesh Awasthi, director, EDI.

The institute has formed 20 textile clusters in different parts of the country, including Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, under its International Centre for Cluster Competitiveness and Growth (IC3G).