Tamil Nadu Minister for Handlooms and Textiles S. Gokula Indira, inaugurating training centre at Emaneswarm on Thursday said that 100 handloom weavers in Paramakudi, Virudhunagar, Nagercoil and Tirunelveli circles would be offered training for 50 days under the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS).

During the training the weavers would also be given a daily stipend of Rs. 150 each. The training imparted to the weavers in the centre would help them develop new designs and come out with diversified products with improved quality to meet changing market needs and enhance their earning.

In the first batch, 20 weavers, including eight women, from Paramakudi circle would be trained and all the 100 weavers would be covered in the next 10 months, she said.

The Minister said that 89 weavers’ cooperative societies were functioning in Ramanathapuram (86) and Sivanganga (three) circles with more than 12,000 weavers attached to them. They produced about Rs. 36 crore-worth products, mainly cotton saris, per year, and Co-optex procured 40 percent of them.

The training centre was equipped with all necessary infrastructure facilities, including looms, motorised jacquard boxes, computerised design machine, computerised card punching machine, and motorised pirn winding machine to help the weavers upgrade their skills and familiarise with emerging technologies, R.P. Gowthaman, Assistant Director of Handlooms and Textiles, Parakamudi circle, said.

He said that 30 weavers each from Paramakudi and Virudhunagar circles and 20 each from Nagercoil and Tirunelveli circles would be trained in the centre.

Besides, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Union is also imparting 15-day training to weavers in technology upgradation on a regular basis. Twenty weavers are trained every month with a daily stipend of Rs. 150 each.