Textile Sector in India provides largest source of employment in the country with over 4.5 crore people employed directly and another 6 crores people in allied sector including large number of women and rural population through various schemes and public programmes such as:-
- Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme is being implemented to upgrade technology/machineries of textile industry with an outlay of Rs.17,822 crore during 2016-2022 which will attract investment of Rs.1 lakh crore and generate employment in the textile sector by 2022.
- Under the Scheme of Integrated Textile Park (SITP), Government provides 40% subsidy with a ceiling of Rs.40 crore to set up Textile Parks for infrastructure creation and employment generation. 59 sanctioned textiles parks are under various stages of implementation, once fully operational it is expected to house about 5909 textile units and will generate employment for about 3,61,093 persons.
- Under the Scheme for development of Knitting and Knitwear to boost production in knitting and knitwear clusters which provide employment to nearly 24 lakh persons.
- Apart from the aforesaid programmes, Government has been implementing various schemes for promoting investment, production, employment generation in Powerloom Sector, Silk Samagra, North Eastern Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS), National Handicraft Development Programme (NHDP) and National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP) to provide direct job in rural India.
There is no specific scheme for branding of raw cotton. However, Government has launched Indian Handloom brand for high quality handloom product, with authentic traditional design with zero defect and zero effect on environment. Since its launch, 1590 registration have been issued under 184 product categories.
Under the broad objective of “Skill India” & “Make in India” initiatives, Government is taking many initiatives in addition to the above mentioned schemes such as:
(i). SAMARTH- Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector and placement oriented programme targeting skill development of 10 lakh youth in the entire value chain of textiles, excluding Spinning & Weaving in the organized Sector. SAMARTH scheme include Training of Trainers (ToT), Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System(AEBAS), CCTV recording of training Programme, dedicated call center with helpline number, mobile app based Management Information System (MIS) and online monitoring of the training process.
Under this scheme, 18 State Government have been allocated a training target of 3.6 lakh beneficiaries for conducting training Programme in traditional programme in traditional and organized sectors. Sectoral Organization of Ministry (DC-Handloom, DC-Handicrafts, CSB & National Jute Board) has been allocated a training of 43,000 beneficiaries for skilling/ up-skilling in traditional sectors.
Further, undertaking industry oriented entry level skilling programme in the organized sector a total of 76 industries have been empanelled under entry level skilling and allocated a training target of 1.36 lakh beneficiaries. For up-skilling programme 44 industries have been empanelled and allocated training target of 30,000 beneficiaries.
(ii). Under Technical Textiles interventions, it is poised to create high value jobs in the country for textiles sector workers. Employment in the sector is expected to increase to 23 lakhs by 2024 from the present 16 lakhs. Interventions will help to achieve 40 Billion USD market size by 2024-25 from present level of 19 Billion USD and also to enhance target penetration level in domestic applications: Agro-textiles (10% – 40%), medical textiles (10% – 30%), Geo-textiles (20% – 60%), protection textiles (20% – 60%). To promote development and application of these high quality raw material. The product range into 12 broad segments. In the long run we aim at achieving a share of 30-35 per cent of fibre consumption for applications in technical textiles.
Besides these, Government is also providing training under Handloom and Handicraft sector for upgradation of skills through training to the workers and artisans in weaving, designing, dye and printing through to produce good quality products.
This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Textiles Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani in Rajya Sabha today.