ICAR-CIRCOT celebrated National Handloom Day on 7th August, 2021 as a part of 5th DARE-ICAR-CIRCOT Campaign for India@75 ‘ भारत का अमृत महोत्सव’

ICAR-CIRCOT, Mumbai celebrated 7th National Handloom Day on 7th August 2021 as 5th campaign under “Bharat ka Amrrut Mahotsav” with a Mass Media Campaign #MyHandloomMyPride’ from 10.15 a.m. on virtual mode. It started with the ICAR song. Dr. Sujata Saxena, Director (Acting) welcomed the participants and congratulated them on this occasion. She said that various types of beautiful handloom fabrics from different parts of the country are a part the nation’s glorious cultural heritage and are an important source of livelihood for people in the country. It is the need of the hour that the weavers & artisans in this sector be provided with modern scientific technologies and marketing support to enable them to compete in domestic as well as overseas markets so that this rich cultural heritage continues and prospers.

Veteran Textile expert & Social entrepreneur Dr. (Ms) Manjula Jagatramka, Dean (Textiles),Institute of Heritage Textiles, JJTU, Rajasthan and Founder Director, Vaitarna enlightened the audience with the nitty-gritties of handloom sector in a very vivid and lucid way and shared her entrepreneurial journey in setting up of Vaitarna – a platform working towards the economic empowerment of underprivileged women by organising various training activities at the grass-root level and showcasing the handlooms and handicraft products made by them. It was followed by presentations by two CIRCOT R-ABI start-ups. Shri. Pralhad Nemade, Partner, Prayogsheel Shetkari Pariwar, Akola, MH narrated his innovation in textile machinery to make fine yarn at village level for establishing sustainable cotton value chain through handloom units in rural areas. Mr. Prashant Sude and Mrs. Prerna Sude , Partners, Divyang Creations, Latur, MH shared their journey of successful social entrepreneurship wherein they trained visually impaired people to work on specially customized handlooms and helped them to earn a living and a respectable life. Chief Guest Dr. V.D. Gotmare, former Head, Textile Manufactures Department, VJTI, Mumbai in his address appreciated the speakers and their dedication towards Handlooms. He stressed that Handloom fabric is a boon to wear in all types of climate and has therapeutic benefits for skin and blood circulation.

The program was attended by more than 100 viewers which included scientists, Textile faculty & students from textile institutions, NGOs, media persons and other stake holders and was also live streamed on YouTube.

It was followed by an Exhibition cum sale of khadi & handloom products in the Institute premises through stalls of Co-optex and KVIC. The staff members as well as residents in the neighbourhood visited these stalls, bought handloom products and shared their pictures and selfies with these items on their social media accounts with #MyHandloomMyPride’.