Perfecting Craftsmanship through skilling

Culture of India Crafts

Download PDF

Skilling helps to familiarize the artisan with latest technology and designs and helps upgrade the product to international standards, thus, leveraging the sector’s inherent strength as a macro-economic driver. Textile is a vast and versatile industry. Be it the silk from Assam or the cotton from Bengal, the Pashmina from Kashmir or the Kanjeevaram from South India, they all have their own story to tell and have their place in the market. No matter how much technology advances, the skill in the hands of people has its own charm. There is a lot of tradition that has been passed on through generations which is no less than the magic of skilled hands.
When it comes to handicrafts and handlooms there is hardly any part of India which is not known for its specially crafted and woven items.
India can achieve higher growth rates of finished products such as apparel, home furnishing and technical textiles.
This would maximize employment generation and value creation within the country.
The development of these segments in India is not only socially significant in terms of creating more employment opportunities, women empowerment and eradication of poverty and destitution, but also a harbinger of growth in terms of enhancing national income, exports, and entrepreneurship, given that some segments in the textile chain are capital-light and have less gestation period for commissioning the project.
Conclusion:
The elevating employment opportunities in the textile and handicraft sectors and its allied industries, will make these sectors more prosperous.
Further, these sectors are an important source to express art and skill in crafts and promote our culture by making crafts and textile items available locally.
Apart from the United States and Europe, which account for about two-thirds of India’s textile exports, China, the UAE, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan, and Brazil are some of the major markets for these exports.
With focused efforts the country is expected to lure significant global businesses to India.
It is envisaged that the Indian market will continue its upward trajectory in the years to come leveraging its inherent strengths and macroeconomic drivers.
Initiatives for skilling:
With increasing emphasis on quality, the demand for skilled labor has increased.
Almost 87 per cent of the handloom households hail from rural India and only 13 per cent are from the urban areas. The handloom industry plays an important role in women empowerment due to employment of a lot of women in this sector.
Skilling opportunities in various job roles like- auto loom weaver,power loom operator, Shuttleless Loom Weaver, Projectile, Beam Carrier and Loader, Fitter—auto loom weaving machine, etc. have given an impetus to the industry.
The sector is also a useful tool to leverage women empowerment as they constitute majority Of the workforce in this segment.
Various efforts have been made towards technology infrastructure development, export promotion etc.
To spearhead and address the immediate need of the textile industry, successful efforts were made in developing 72 Qualification Packs (QPs), out of which 71 have been cleared by National Skill Qualification (NSQC).
These 71 QPs constitute the requirements of about 80 per cent of the workforce engaged in textile industries, majorly the textile mill sector.