COIMBATORE: As part of efforts to uplift tribals living in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), the Union Textiles Ministry will train women in weaving under the Samarth scheme. The beneficiaries would get a stipend of Rs 13,500 in one and half months.
MG Ganesan, Deputy Director of ATR, said out of the 70 tribal women in Sarcarpathy and Nagaroothu settlements who attended a meeting in this regard, 30 women have come forward to receive training.
They will be taught to make tapestry and get a stipend of Rs 300 a day. The training is for 45 days. Once the women complete the training, they will be given bank loan of Rs 50,000 at the rate of 0.5 paise to procure weaving machines and tools along with raw materials. They can repay the amount in three years, Ganesan explained.
"Currently, tribal women work in coconut plantations and get paid `350 to 400 a day for ten hours of hard labour. We will help the women to make a tiger, elephant birds along with flora and fauna tapestry models and market their produce through shops functioning at Topslip, Attakatti and Valparai. We understand that the export potential for the products is huge," Ganesan added.
The training would be given by Ezhuchi (arise) producer company which works with women, transgender, destitute and PwDs. Mani Chinnaswamy, founder of the movement and Director of Appachi Eco-Logic Cotton Pvt.Ltd in Pollachi told TNIE "We started this movement to give recognition to handloom weaving. We have arranged buses for the women to travel to Pollachi for the training and also appointed staff to take care of their children during the training session. We have set a target of training 1,000 women per year and so far more than 200 have been given training. Recently, the women members who have completed the training created a tapestry of Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and met her recently in Coimbatore.
Ganesan said the forest department would conduct campaigns about the programme in Ulanthy, Valparai and Manomboly forest ranges.