Our Reporter
Dimapur, March 18 (EMN): Nagaland has a total of 37,142 women handloom workers, while 5,051 handicraft artisans have registered with the office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) as per the 4th All India Handloom Census 2019-20.
According to the handloom census 2019-20, about 35,22,512 handloom workers are employed across the country with 25,46,285 women accounting for 72.29 percent of all handloom workers. In addition, the office of the Development Commissioner has a total of 16,87,534 women registered handicrafts artisans.
This was informed by the minister of State for Textiles, Darshana Jardosh, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on March 16.
As per Northeast states-wise distribution, Assam has the most women handloom workers with 11,79,507, followed by Manipur with 2,11,327, Tripura with 93,589, Arunachal Pradesh with 73,871, Nagaland with 37,142, Meghalaya with 30,320, Mizoram with 22,083 and Sikkim with 673.
Assam also has the highest number of women handicraft artisans registered with the office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) with 58,114, followed by Manipur with 55,609, Tripura with 9,902, Arunachal Pradesh with 6,876, Nagaland with 5,051, Meghalaya with 2,364, Sikkim with 1,285 and Mizoram with 1,187.
While the estimated production for the year 2021-2022 (April to January) of man-made fibre was 1,803 kg, man-made filament yarn was 1,676 kg, cotton yarn was 3,410 kg, blended and 100% non-cotton yarn was 1,462 kg and total spun yarn was 4,872.
With a view to attract investment, boost employment generation and position itself strongly in the global textile market, the government has recently approved production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles and Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM-MITRA) scheme which have a potential to generate large-scale employment in the sector.
In addition, the government is implementing various schemes such as the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS), Schemes for the development of the powerloom sector (power-tex), National handloom development programme, National handicraft development programme, Integrated wool development programme (IWDP) etc. for promotion and development of textile sector on pan-India basis.