Weaving in a new design,UP handlooms prepare to take on the world with Centre’s help

The districts involved are Barabanki,Varanasi,Bijnore,Azamgarh and Amroha. In each district,six to eight clusters of weavers will be formed who will be covered under the scheme. Each cluster will have 300 to 500 weavers.

After identifying these clusters,the ministry’s office of the Development Commissioner for Handlooms will start imparting training to them.

At the inaugural day of the Silk Fab,an exhibition of silk weavers from across the country A K Shukla,Deputy Director (Processing) at the office of Development Commissioner for Handlooms,said: “Uttar Pradesh has over a dozen districts where different handloom items are weaved. But despite abundant manpower and raw material,the produce is unable to find a place in the international market. One of the biggest reasons is that the weavers are recreating the same old designs with no innovation at all.”

The exhibition was inaugurated by Union Minister for Textiles,Panabaka Lakshmi.

While Varanasi’s Benarsi sarees had already suffered due to the Chinese invasions,the durries from Amroha,too,were loosing out to nylon knits.

“Our weavers just need a boost and some support from the government,” said Shukla.

Under this scheme,the Union ministry is spending Rs 60 lakh annually for the next three years. Of that,Rs 2 lakh will be spent annually on hiring the services of a designer,who will “train the weavers to improvise on colours,patterns and designs,” said Shukla.

The ministry is also tying up with companies like the Future Group,who will be giving a market to these products.

“We will be promoting these designer handlooms through exhibitions like the Silk Fab throughout the country,” Shukla said. “We will invite foreign buyers in buyer-manufacturer meet and we are sure that with these measures,the fortunes of the state’s handloom will be on a rise again.”