Bhubaneswar: The Directorate of Textiles has planned to provide interest free working capital loan to the organisations which have been entrusted with the task of extending a helping hand to the weavers, especially in market linkage.
The Directorate has decided that Boyanika, Sambalpuri Bastralaya, and Odisha Cooperative Tassar and Silk Federation Ltd (SERIFED) should be given the interest free working capital to boost their capacity to help the weavers and artists engaged in handloom works in the state.
Data from the National Handloom Census says that there are 65,391 weaver households with a total of 1,22,335 weavers and ancillary work forces engaged in 55,970 handlooms. However, the COVID outbreak has severely affected the sector.
Boyanika and Sambalpuri Bastralaya are said to account for 75 per cent of the total sales of cooperative sector. The department officials opine that these organisations need to take extra efforts during the coming years to liquidate the unsold cloth lifted in the current year. Some officials believe that the recovery process may take four to five years to bring back the situation to normalcy.
According to the department— sales of Boyanika was down by Rs 608 lakh in March 2020 (YoY) due to the lockdown during second fortnight. In April and May, its sales were down by Rs 647 lakh owing to lockdown in comparison to the corresponding period in 2019-20.
It is said that it could not procure finished clothes from its weavers, SHG workers and others but it released all outstanding cloth dues and also provided raw materials in advance. This has lead to dearth of funds with the agency.
Sambalpuri Bastralaya, which provides engagement to around 3,000 weaver households in the state, is also hit by similar sales figures. It is said to have lost Rs 315.59 lakh in March 2020 compared to last year and sales were done down by Rs 559.13 lakh in April-May 2020 compared to the corresponding period last year.
According to the interest free capital loan system, these organisations will have to submit their proposals and the department can sanction them the loans for their works. The proposal of interest free working loans is now with the higher officials in the Handloom, Textile and Handicrafts department for approval.
