Under the Integrated Handloom Development Scheme of the State Government's Rural Industry Department, 940 weavers of the State were benefited by December in 2015-16 with expenses of Rs 2.75 crore.
In the new fiscal year 2016-17 starting from April 1 budget provision of Rs 7 crore has been made for this scheme and target of benefiting two thousand 195 weavers has been set.
Rural Industry Department Officials informed that this scheme was started for development of handloom weavers of the State, under which financially weak weavers of rural areas are divided into groups of 20 and are provided weaving training of four months so as to make them more employable.
For making designs as per the market demands, weavers are provided two-months of skill improvement training. Weavers who do not have their own looms are provided Rs 25,000 for loom and Rs3000 for other necessary equipments. Moreover, Weavers cooperative societies are provided financial aid ofRs20 lakh each for infrastructure development.
A total of 8,500 persons were provided employment under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in Chhattisgarh during the past eight years, officials stated.
According to Chhattisgarh Khadi and Village Industries Board, the PMEGP during the financial year 2015-16 as on December 2015 had provided fund of Rs17.56 crore to 830 cottage industry units for commencing their works.
In turn, these units have provided employment to 948 persons. The PMEGP is a programme sponsored by Central Khadi and Village Industries Commission.
Under this scheme, for setting up of cottage industry, projects costing upto Rs25 lakh is sanctioned. For beneficiaries of general category margin money of Rs25 per cent is provided by the Board, while for beneficiaries belonging to the female category, ST, SC and OBC class, 35 per cent margin money is provided as grant, officers said.
The loan availed from the bank has to be returned over a period of seven years, they said.
Mainly Poha Mill, mini rice mill, crusher plant, lack production, bamboo and cane production center, pottery business, pulses mill, flour mill, soap industry, incense sticks, candle industry, carpenter works, ironsmith, hosiery, production of utensils from brass-copper-brass, aluminum utensil, iron furniture production unit and others are financed under the programme.
As many as 119 cottage industry units were established involving an estimated cost of Rs 1.78 cr under the PMEGP during 2015-16. The project is being run by Khadi and Gramodhyog Board. Chhattisgarh had 7,586 persons involved in manufacture of Khadi products as on March 31, 2015.
Out of the 7,586 persons, there were 6502 spinners and 1084 weavers, according to the data released by Union Ministry for MSME).
Notably, the Chhattisgarh Khadi and Village Industries Board has been churning out trained youngsters through its various training programmes from rural areas with complete knowledge of availability of raw material, marketing and financial management to run their units , officials stated.
Beneficiaries of this scheme also have easy access to bank loans.
The Board provided self-employment training to 73 youth from rural pockets of the State during 2014-15 under its Artisan Training Scheme.
Nearly Rs14.84 lakh has been spent on this training in the programme.
Board officials informed that under this scheme, youngsters of rural areas are provided training in various trades for self-employment.
The State Government has also established an Apparel Training & Designing Centre each in Bilaspur, Raipur, Bhilai and Rajnandgaon.