Smriti Irani urges people to wear handloom products
“I wear handloom and urge the citizens of the country too to lend their support for using handloom products to benefit lakhs of weavers,” she said here, marking the second National Handloom Day with a series of events in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency during which weavers were awarded and a number of MoUs were inked.
“‘I wear handloom’ hashtag has made a massive development and nearly 10 crore people have endorsed it till date,” she said.
Smriti Irani’s #IWearHandloom campaign a hit on Twitter; look who all are sporting ethnic-wear
Irani tweeted, “Indian handlooms symbolise India’s heritage & culture. Wear it to carry on our rich tradition and support 43 lakh weavers & their families” just before starting off the Selfie With Handloom campaign with the following tweet: “I support Indian weavers, here’s my #IWearHandloom look – Handwoven Silk from Bihar. Share your look & tag 5 people”, with a picture of herself wearing a beautiful blue handloom silk sari with a plain red border.
Irani tweeted, “Indian handlooms symbolise India’s heritage & culture. Wear it to carry on our rich tradition and support 43 lakh weavers & their families” just before starting off the Selfie With Handloom campaign with the following tweet: “I support Indian weavers, here’s my #IWearHandloom look – Handwoven Silk from Bihar. Share your look & tag 5 people”, with a picture of herself wearing a beautiful blue handloom silk sari with a plain red border.
Smriti Irani Weaves a New Legacy
“When I received responsibility of this ministry,” says Irani, “one of the first challenges I came across were the many layers separating the Government from individual weavers. The sector is still largely unorganised and we have to find ways in which support can directly reach the workers.” She recently announced the launch of the Ministry’s Hathkargha Samvardhan Yojana, which will allow weavers to invest in new equipment they believe would aid their craft. No middleman, corporation, designer or public official will be allowed to interfere with their choices. “Technology used in the right way will be greatly beneficial,” she says, “While the essence of the handloom should remain—nobody should plug in a switch and turn it into a powerloom—weavers do need to upgrade their looms from time to time. The Government will cover 90 per cent of the cost for better equipment.”
Despite the falling number of weavers, Irani is confident that handloom will survive. “I went to Moradabad in UP recently to meet a weaver community. There was a 20-year-old student whose father was one of the last remaining japani weavers. He was ready to take over his dad’s business because he understands that the legacy will be lost forever otherwise. People wrongly assume that the new generation isn’t interested in the family business. The truth is, they do [want to take over], as long as they receive the right kind of support and appreciation. Most weavers have never seen active engagement [by] the Government or design fraternity before. This is what we’re hoping to change,” says the Minister, adding that handloom products can be turned contemporary, chic and aspirational.
“I’ve often been told that handloom is not the ‘young thing’. When I became Minister, I thought to myself that given India’s young population, if a product does not connect with the youth then it is bound to have a limited market space.” Over the course of a two-hour meeting with three youngsters, Irani launched a social media campaign that not only put the spotlight on handloom products but also proved that there were still many who understood the value of handcrafted fashion. The #IWearHandloom campaign, which asked people to post a selfie in a handloom dress, was widely supported around the world. The hashtag got nearly 22 million ‘impressions’—a count of its re-use—on Twitter. This was in addition to 5.1 million impressions in less than 24 hours on Facebook.
“The campaign went beyond fabric,” says Irani, “It turned into something personal. It touched aspects of legacy, tradition and family. We started to receive calls from designers and celebrities who wanted to lend their support to it. One day everyone at the Australian High Commission in Delhi decided to wear Indian handloom. Councils which are otherwise at loggerheads with one another, came together to promote a sector that is such an essential part of our heritage.”
India’s textile heritage has given her some of her fondest memories, she adds. “I have a handspun khadi sari with a Banarasi border that my mother gave me. I had little recognition of the history behind it, though. No memories of the textile as such. I saw it and preserved it, like most people see and preserve handloom [clothes], as an inheritance. When the handloom hashtag went viral, my mother called me up to say, ‘Do you know you own this handloom sari, and you never appreciated it.’ This is what I had hoped the campaign would achieve—for parents to explain the weave and tell stories of the craft to their children. This will help sustain and give them ownership of their legacy.”
Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani launches E-Dhaga NHDC mobile app
Textiles Minister Irani in her address stated that the app seeks to address concerns of individual weavers such as availability of raw material, delays in supplies and ensuring stocks in depots. She congratulated NHDC and its team for taking up the development of the app in a very short time.
Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani calls for digital revolution in handloom industry in Northeast India
Union Textiles Minister, Smriti Irani in her inaugural address said that the North Eastern Region has huge potential for investments, particularly in the field of textiles industry due to its span traditional skill base and a variety of unique designs and eco friendly products. Under the North Eastern Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERPTS), the Ministry is implementing various projects for handlooms, handicrafts, sericulture, apparel and garmenting and technical textiles in the eight States of North Eastern Region, in line with the “Act East” policy of the Government of India.
The Union Minister also informed that the Ministry has recently launched the “Bunkar Mitra-Handloom Helpline Centre” where professional queries of weavers will be answered by the experts in the field and a mobile app, ‘E-Dhaga’ developed for the benefit of handloom weavers will address the concerns of individual weavers relating to the availability of raw material, delays in supplies and ensuring stocks in depots. The mobile app will be a boon for handloom weavers to transact business anytime, anywhere and they can send their indents and payments online through this app.
Peter England to sell ‘India Handloom Brand’ garments
Authentic handloom products have always found resonance with Indian consumer. Weavers will get the right value and visibility in the mens fashion garments market for their quality fabrics through this partnership with Peter England and their direct sales channel,” Irani said.
Smriti Irani announces textile ministry helpline for weavers, to conduct census
It would start soon. I have asked the textile secretary to set up a helpline for weavers as soon as possible so that they can call me up directly and inform whether they (weavers) are getting the benefits of the schemes meant for them and we may know about their problem and solve them,” said Irani.
#IWearHandloom trends after Smriti Irani launches campaign to support weavers
The campaign, Irani said, "is a tribute to women who contribute to 15% of cloth production in India and 95% of world handloom production, it is saying thank you for their hardwork and dedication for keeping our traditions alive."
What can we expect from the Textiles Policy? What’s in store for the handloom sector, which employs 4.33 million people of which 77 per cent are women?
I think the policy in itself will encompass everything. Apart from handlooms, it will look at the jute sector, the needs of the cotton sector; not only from an apparel perspective, but also from the crop perspective to increase yield per hectare. Through the TUFS (Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme) in the 1980s, ITIs were the prominent places where people who wanted a job quickly, could learn a course on textile mechanics. We do not have that anymore. If you want to give impetus to textiles, you need to look at the engineering solutions.
How do you plan to promote handloom through that e-commerce platforms?
I want to move from #IWearHandloom to #IJustBoughtHandloom. And I think two generations are getting together to buy handloom because of one hashtag, which actually is not coming out of an agency; no marketing team involved and no money spent. The fact is that technology has helped us connect to an emotion.
There are challenges when it comes to the sector. I might not like the cut or the product. How can I make it better? You make it better with engagements with designers not only at a national level, but also go down to each and every weaver service centre and the last-mile weaver to connect with the designer. That is something I would like to do.
Apart from the business angle of it, apart from the skill angle of it, I think as a country we can also leverage the heritage and historical aspect of it. There was a Budget announcement about a Hastkala Academy. The intention is to get the eco-system going together.
What about the price of the handloom products sold online?
They are buying at competitive prices. The fact that the kind of marketing they do and the pains they take in making the presentation, makes a whole lot of difference.
Exclusive: New Textiles Policy to focus on handlooms, e-commerce
Speaking to BTVI, Irani said the new Textiles Policy will encompass all verticals of handloom. “The Policy will address handlooms, jute, cotton and other makes of handloom.”
To keep pace with time, Irani said an announcement on engaging e-commerce to boost marketing of handloom products will also be made in the Textile Policy.
Outlining the need for a shift in mindset for handloom products, the former soap opera icon said she wants a shift from #iwearhandloom to #ijustboughthandloom.
National Handloom Day 2016 : PM Modi to Attend Celebration Today
In a recent interaction with the media wing, Smriti Zubin Minister told that “the second National Handloom Day, which was first celebrated in 2015 will be celebrated at the state level in 200 different handloom clusters and in all the states.”
Handloom India Brand launches first apparel range with BIBA
"It will not only make us conscious of our rich legacy, but also, with Delhi facing some environmental challenges, it should be mentioned that handloom is environmentally sustainable and friendly," Irani said.
Arunachal has potential to promote textiles sector: Irani
“It will give an opportunity to local entrepreneurs to convert their ideas and designs into flourishing businesses and opportunities to the unemployed trained youths and provide a fillip to the traditional sectors like handlooms and handicrafts to convert the traditional designs into modern garments and market opportunities,” Ms. Irani said.
Silk is for all, says Smriti Irani
“I don’t want any disservice done to men who want to use silk,” said the Minister, speaking at the launch of an indigenous Automatic Silk Reeling Machine (ARM) and Centre of Excellence for Training at the Central Silk Board in Bengaluru. The perception of “silk is only for women” should change to “silk is for all” to expand its use, she added.
“I think the notion of ‘silk is only for women’ is a very narrow approach in marketing because if you want the expansion of use of silk, then we have to look at diversification of products.”
Textiles Minister announces several initiatives, spl campaign to provide MUDRA Loans to women handloom weavers
Irani said that more than 1,700 women weavers are being given such loans, to start the campaign. Five weavers received MUDRA loans from the Minister, on the occasion.
Irani noted that 30% of the tasar silk produced in India is through the practice of thigh reeling. The Minister said that in order to put an end to this unhygienic and inhuman practice, the Ministry is starting the distribution of woman-friendly Buniyaad Reeling Machines to woman silk reelers.
rani said that often, the handloom weavers are not able to know the status of the MUDRA loan application, after applying for the same.
She said that the portal will address this gap; the portal will allow weavers and officials to do real-time tracking of the loan application status.
Need for IP protection for handloom weavers: Irani
There’s a need to introduce intellectual property (IP) protection for handloom weavers of India, opined Union textiles minister Smriti Irani at a handloom conference recently held in New Delhi. She also said that handloom is the country’s legacy and its potential needs to be positioned and acknowledged not only domestically, but also globally.
At the Creating Handloom 2.0 conference ‘Realising the potential of the Indian Handloom Industry’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Irani emphasised that every weaver has their unique designs and craftsmanship which needs to be protected and acknowledged. It is important to ensure a framework where intellectual protection rights can be introduced and ensured for handloom weavers.
“Handloom is not an area of select few. When the industry comes together with the weaver, an expeditious journey can take place,” said Irani.
Varanasi weavers get trade centre to promote handlooms
The Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum (TFC&CM) is being set up at Varanasi to develop and promote handloom products and carry forward the rich tradition of handlooms of Varanasi. The first phase of the centre consisting of crafts museum, entrance plaza and shopping arcade was inaugurated in December, said Union textiles minister Smriti Irani.