Union textile minister Smriti Irani at the second National Handloom Day celebrations at Swatantrata Bhavan, Banaras Hindu University on Sunday made an announcement to launch a national helpline for weavers to be headquartered at the union ministry of textiles that will enable weavers to lodge complaints with the minister directly, and also give suggestions for development of the handloom sector. Apart from a census of them.

Irani said that she has asked the textile secretary to set up a helpline for weavers as soon as possible so that they can call her up directly and inform whether they (weavers) are getting the benefits of the schemes meant for them and they may know about their problem and solve them.

As for the census, the government wants to find out the exact number of weavers across the country in order to ensure that benefits of various government schemes are being extended to each person. As, the centre has taken various steps to enhance income of the weavers.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship for upgrading skills of handloom weavers through the Weavers Service Centres (WSCs). Another MoU was signed with the National Institute of Open Schooling and IGNOU for providing educational opportunities to handloom weavers and their children.

If the children of weavers can’t come to school, schools would go to them. They have signed an MoU with NIOS to make sure that the children of weavers get education, said the minister, who gave out Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) loans to handloom weavers.

The minister gave away Sant Kabir Awards 2015 to three master weavers and National Handloom Awards 2015 to 20 others. Irani also distributed prizes to the winners of the India Handloom Brand Design contest and ‘Design Sutra’ competition of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

Another MoU was signed with NIFT for implementing revamped curricula to incorporate handlooms and handicrafts, and also to engage leading fashion designers to work with handloom clusters. The MoUs were also signed with the Fashion Design Council of India and other designer groups so that reputed designers may mentors weavers through WSCs.

To promote hand woven fabric renowned designers such as Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anita Dongre, Samant Chauhan, Sanjay Garg , Shruti Sancheti, Rina Dhaka, Tarun Tahiliani have joined hands with the textile ministry.