Sericulture and Weaving are the two most important cottage based, eco-friendly industries in the rural areas of Meghalaya. In the absence of a textile industry, Sericulture and Weaving plays an important role for the production of Silk fabrics and hand woven fabrics of ethnic designs in this state of rich heritage and cultural ethos.
The sericulture weavers of Meghalaya are on the route to prosperity going by the traditional way to preserve the rich cultural identities and heritage for which now they are all set to take full advantage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India scheme.
There are 12 seed farms, six for mulberry, three for Eri and two for Muga. There are nine nurseries to rear planting materials in different Districts. There are two training institutes located at Ummulong (Sericulture) and Mendipathar (Weaving) which are meant for imparting training and also issue of certificates.
Textiles Minister Smriti Irani along with chief minister Mukul Sangma, had earlier inaugurated Meghalaya’s first state-of-the-art apparel and garment making centre at Ampati. The Rs 14.26-crore project was commissioned under the North East Region Textiles Promotion Scheme, (NERTPS).
Under the NERTP schemes a survey was made and Mawlong area of the state was found to be feasible as most of the villagers there are silk rearers and the area had a large number of weavers weaving their own yarns and converting them into fabrics in a traditional way and method.
The intention of the scheme is to gather the people and form a cluster and a cooporative and register them so that they can work together and produce their product in uniformity and meet the market demands. However, a lot of technical thing needs to be improved for which the department has taken up the cluster development executive from the district handloom office- Nongpoh.
A German Association for International Collaboration (Giz) has tied up with a Leipzig-based firm, Seidentraum, to create a market in Europe for eri silk from weavers in Meghalaya. Under the climate-change adaptation project of Giz, supported by the Meghalaya government. Seidentraum will procure silk from the weavers to make high-end fabrics, including baby products, initially for the German market.
Irani urged local weavers to register with the India Handloom Board, which will connect them directly with multinational companies.
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