The Government of India, Ministry of Textiles, Office of the Development Commissioner for Handlooms has taken up 613 handloom clusters, each having 300-500 handlooms for their integrated and holistic development in various States under Integrated Handlooms Development Scheme (IHDS) during XI Plan and 2012-13 & 2013-14 (till December 2013).
Besides, 20 clusters, each having about 5000 handlooms have been taken up.
Further, 6 mega handloom clusters, each havingatleast 25000 handlooms have been taken up. In these clusters, financial assistance has been extended to benefit the weavers towards various inputs like margin money, new looms and accessories, skill up-gradation, design development, corpus fund for yarn supply, up-gradation of handlooms, setting up of Common Facility Centre/Dye house, marketing, construction of Workshedsetc.
A new Scheme “Comprehensive Handlooms Development Scheme (CHDS)” has been recently introduced, which provides for taking up new clusters, each having 200-500 handlooms and 2000-5000 handlooms to be developed in a time period of 4 years.
The scheme has several components and therefore, based on the receipt of viable proposals and availability of funds, financial assistance is released to the Implementing Agencies through the State Government concerned.
A statement showing State-wise funds released and number of weavers benefited during the last 3 years and current year (upto January 2014) is annexed.
Handloom clusters have been taken up in different years of XI Plan and current Plan, of which some have been fully implemented while remaining are in different stages of implementation. Independent evaluation of the Cluster Development Programmes has revealed positive outcomes in terms of increase in productivity, increase in income, increase in number of working days etc.