Every year, the Government of India celebrates National Handloom Day on August 7. The day is celebrated to honour the handloom weavers in the country. Also, the day highlights handloom industry in India.

Highlights

August 7 was first declared as National Handloom Day in 2015. The main objective is to create awareness about importance of handloom industry. The sixth National Handloom Day is being celebrated in 2020 under the coordination of Ministry of Textiles.

Why August 7?

August 7 was chosen as National Handloom Day to commemorate Swadeshi movement that was launched in 1905 on the very same day. The movement was launched in Calcutta Town Hall to protest against partition of Bengal by the British Government.

Schemes related to Handloom Sector

The following are the schemes that were launched by GoI to boost handloom sector

National Handloom Development Programme

The programme was launched for the time period of April 2017 and March 2020 under the Ministry of Textiles. The following are the key features of the scheme

• The scheme aims to support weavers within and outside cooperative fold.
• It will create permanent infrastructure in the form of marketing complexes, Urban Haats and develop e-marketing web portals for handloom products.

Comprehensive Handloom cluster Development Scheme

The scheme was launched between April 2017 and March 2020 to develop Mega Handloom Clusters in the country. The main aim of the scheme is to develop Mega Handloom Clusters that specialize in specific products.

Other Schemes

The other Schemes implemented by GoI for the welfare of the handloom sector are as follows

• Yarn Supply Scheme
• Handloom Weavers Comprehensive
• Welfare Scheme Weavers MUDRA Scheme

Background

The handloom sector holds a unique place in the Indian Economy. More than 43 lakh weavers mostly from backward and minority community are employed in the handloom sector directly or indirectly. The Handloom sector accounts to 15% of textile production in the country.