Textiles secy assures financial support to handloom weavers

Textiles Secretary Neelam Shami Rao chaired a meeting with the Weavers' Service Association on issues related to the sector and assured the government's support, the Ministry said on Thursday. The meeting was held in Bengaluru on Wednesday, the official handle of the textile ministry shared on X, formerly twitter. Researchers from CSIR -- National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), and Indian Institute of Science (II Sc) also presented new projects supported under the National Technical Textile Mission during the meeting. "Secretary (Textiles) chaired the meeting on 09.04.2025 with the Textile institutes/organisations at Bengaluru. Discussions with Weavers' Service Association on textiles issues and assured the support from the Ministry of Textiles," the ministry said in the post on X.As per 4th All India Handloom Census 2019-20, there are 35,22,512 handloom weavers/workers across the country. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, is implementing schemes under National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP) for the welfare of handloom weavers/workers across the country. Under the schemes, financial support of Rs 8,000 per month is provided to the awardee handloom weavers/workers above 60 years of age, in indigent circumstances having annual income below Rs 1 lakh.