PATNA: Altogether 43 new centres are to be set up in the state to impart three months’ training in spinning and weaving cotton-khadi and silk yarn to women and girls to make them economically self-reliant, state industries minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the launch of one such training centre at the city khadi mall, he said the women who lost their husbands and parents in the Covid-19 pandemic would be given preference in the training to be imparted by the Bihar State Khadi Gramodyog Board.
The minister said more khadi malls like the one at Patna would come up in Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya to make khadi products more popular and create job opportunities in the state. He said the industries department would lay emphasis on promoting the traditional industries such as khadi and handloom in the state as well. “The demand of trained workers in khadi and handloom sectors will be higher in the days to come,” he asserted.
Shahnawaz said the industries department is contemplating setting up exhibition-cum-sale centres of khadi and handloom products at the railway stations outside the state to benefit the workers associated with the traditional industries.
The minister said the department would leave no stone unturned to provide benefits to the weavers and related workers during the 75th anniversary of the country’s freedom, which is being celebrated as ‘Amritmahotsav’.
To promote khadi products, the state would participate in the 75 ‘hoonar haats’ organized by the Centre. He revealed that the exhibition would be organised in and outside the state in October if the Covid remained under control.
The Bihar State Khadi Gramodyog Board has already been sanctioned Rs1 crore for the purpose. In addition, Rs1.25 crore has been sanctioned for imparting training to women and girls during 2021-22 fiscal, Hussain said.
