Will this Boost Apparel Industry?
Samarth a scheme for capacity building in textile and apparel sector has been announced by the Ministry of Textile, Government of India. The scheme targets the entire value chain of textile except Spinning and Weaving in the organised sector, for a period of three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs. 1300 crore. The ‘Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)’ shall be known by the name “leFkZ (Samarth)”, signifying the broad objective of the scheme to skill the youth for gainful and sustainable employment in the textile sector.
One of the major objectives of the scheme is to provide demand driven, placement oriented National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) compliant skilling programmes to incentivise and supplement the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organised textile and related sectors, covering the entire value chain of textile, excluding spinning and weaving. The scheme will enable provision of sustainable livelihood either by wage or self- employment to all sections of the society across the country.
The Scheme would target to train 10.00 lakh persons (9 lakhs in organised & 1 lakh in traditional sector)
Textiles minister Smriti Irani announced in August 2019 that out of 18 selected states, 16 state governments signed MoUs with the Textile Ministry. The 18 selected states include Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Karnataka, Odisha, Manipur, Haryana, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand. However, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha did not sign the MoU.
The Ministry feels that Tamil Nadu, especially the Tirupur cluster, desires more skilling opportunities. The number of beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu is estimated at 1,400, including the textiles and handloom segment. Highlighting that 75 percent of those who work in the textile sector are women, Irani said, “The MUDRA scheme has seen that 70 percent of the beneficiaries are women, and state representatives should look at district-wise tailoring opportunities for women as part of the outreach for skilling across states
Another objective is to promote skilling and skill upgradation in the traditional sectors of handlooms, handicrafts, sericulture, and jute. It also seeks to enable provision of sustainable livelihood either by wage or self-employment to all sections of the society across the country. These skilling programmes are implemented through institutions and organisations of the Ministry of Textiles or state governments, which have training infrastructure and placement tie-ups with the textile industry.
Apart from this, reputed training institutions, NGOs, societies, trusts, corporates, startups, and other organisations active in the industry are also part of the implementation process.
The scheme will adopt an Aadhaar-enabled biometric attendance system, with minimum 80 percent attendance for assessment. Trainers with Training of Trainers (ToT) certification by RSA/SSCs will be part of the upskilling process. There will also be CCTV recording for the entire training programme and assessment process.
Third-party assessment and certification by assessment agencies empaneled by RSA will be part of it, as well as placement-linked skilling programme with mandatory wage employment in the organised sector (70 percent), traditional sector (50 percent), and post-placement tracking for one year. A centralised web-based Management Information System (MIS) has also been put in place for monitoring and implementation of the scheme.
The MIS will act as an integrated platform for registration and empanelment of implementing agencies. The programme will also feature random physical verification of active training centres, NSQF-aligned courses, and real-time scheme information publicised on the Ministry of Textiles website, and call centres (helplines) setup to collect feedback.
Further, a mobile app will be used by different stakeholders to ease out the monitoring and implementation mechanism. A call centre setup with helpline/ Toll free number linked to MIS and Public Dashboard. Also, for self-employment, concessional credit under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana will be provided for beneficiaries.
“The Scheme would target to train 10.00 lakh persons (9 lakhs in organised & 1 lakh in traditional sector)“
“The number of beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu is estimated at 1,400, including the textiles and handloom segment.“
