National handloom Day

Handloom sector in India-

• The handloom industry is the country’s largest cottage industry, with 23.77 lakh looms. 
• It is the largest economic activity after agriculture, providing direct and indirect employment to more than 30 lakh weavers. 
• This sector contributes nearly 22 percent of the total cloth produced in the country and also contributed substantially to the export income of the country.
• According to the Handloom Census 2019-20, the industry employs about 3,522,512 handloom workers across the country. 
• The industry primarily employs women workers with a share of 72.29% of the total handloom workers.

• The Government of India has come up with various schemes, like Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme, the National Handloom Development Programme, the Yarn Supply scheme, and the Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development scheme.

National Handloom Development Corporation(NHDC)-

• It was set up in February, 1983 by the Government of India as a public sector undertaking under the ambit of Ministry of Textiles in pursuance of the imperative need for a national level agency to assist the speedy development of the handloom sector with the help of 09 regional offices and 37 branch offices.
• Corporation is coordinating all actions covering the procurement and supply of inputs at reasonable prices, augmenting the marketing efforts of state handloom agencies and initiating developmental activities for upgrading the technology in the handloom sector and improving productivity.