Telangana govt to celebrate National Handloom Day

Stating that handlooms is the second largest sector after agriculture in terms of employment in the state, Telangana industries minister KT Rama Rao has urged legislators to celebrate the National Handloom Day on August 7. The minister has written to MPs, MLAs and MLCs in the state to promote the use of handloom clothes and wear handloom clothing.Rao has urged the legislators to organize activities like Handloom Run in all district and mandal headquarters on National Handloom Day, for promotion of handlooms, a state government release said.

The state government had identified 17,000 handlooms in Telangana and geo-tagged them as part of a state-wide survey, Rao said in his letter to the state representatives. “The survey helped us identify problems being faced by weavers and handloom industries, encouraging us to initiate various welfare programmes, including subsidy on yarn, Pavala Vaddi scheme, block level clusters and handloom savings schemes among others,” the minister said.

On the National Handloom Day this year, the state government will felicitate popular handloom weavers and designers for promoting handlooms.

In 2015, the Central government declared August 7 as the National Handloom Day to highlight the contribution of handloom industry and weavers to the national economy and culture.