5 million jobs for skilled labour in textile sector in 11th Plan

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) Textiles have been recognised as a thrust area for growth during the Eleventh Five Year Plan due to the sector's potential to boost productivity, employment and investment, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State for Textiles EVKS Elangovan in a written reply said that, thus, it is projected that an additional 5 million jobs will be created for skilled labour in the textile sector during the Eleventh Plan. This, in turn, will create the need for an enlarged training and educational infrastructure.

The Scheme of Neighbourhood Apparel&Textile Training Institutes for Job Assurance (NATIJA) has been formulated for establishing a network of employment-linked training facilities in basic garment manufacturing technology. The Scheme is designed to meet the projected demand of 4 million trained workers required in the garment industry over the next 5 years.

He further said this Scheme is to be operated at regional and sub-regional level across the country on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The existing ITIs/Polytechnics and other such institutes could be considered for locating such centres in the initial phase.

Creation of new training centres may be considered subsequently to meet the demand, as and when required. However, no time frame in this regard can be indicated at this stage.

The Minister further informed that there have been requests from major silk producing states namely Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for the introduction of Minimum Support Price (MSP) Scheme for sericulture sector.

Based on the proposal received form these states, the government has asked the Central Silk Board to prepare a scheme on price support mechanism for providing necessary relief to the farmers and reelers to compensate the loss incurred by them due to distress sale.

A committee has constituted by the Central Silk Board for preparation of a proposal on the price support mechanism based on the cost of production of cocoons and raw silk in different states.

The State Departments of Sericulture of different States concerned have been requested by the Central Silk Board to furnish the cost of production for coon and raw silk (variety-wise) pertaining to their States for working out the amount to be compensated during distress sales, Mr Elangovan added.

UNI BBS RP AS1751