Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunkar Yojana (DDUBY), Arunachal Pradesh

What is Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunkar Yojana in Arunachal Pradesh?

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunkar Yojana, often written locally as DDUBY or Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunker Yojana, is a credit support scheme of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh run by the Department of Textile and Handicrafts. The scheme was launched on 17 July 2017 and is listed among the state's Chief Minister's flagship programmes on district administration websites, including Lower Dibang Valley and Changlang.

The purpose is direct: to encourage women handloom weavers to access affordable credit from banks for their working capital requirements. Under the scheme the state government facilitates a loan of up to Rs 2 lakh as working capital for each woman weaver, and provides a 7 per cent interest subvention on short-term credit, cash credit limit, working capital limit, Weavers Credit Card or Swarojgar Credit Card availed by women weavers of the state.

The problem the scheme addresses is specific to handloom. Weaving in Arunachal Pradesh is overwhelmingly done by women on loin looms and frame looms at home, and the binding constraint is almost never skill or demand, it is yarn money. A weaver who has to buy yarn out of the proceeds of the last piece she sold can never scale up, and a moneylender's rate wipes out the margin. Working capital credit at a subsidised interest cost is the intervention that fits that problem. Arunachal Pradesh has more than 1 lakh weavers according to the Handloom Census figure cited by the Department of Textile and Handicrafts, so the potential population for the scheme is large.

How much benefit does DDUBY provide?

• Loan amount: up to Rs 2 lakh in working capital per woman weaver.
• Interest subvention: 7 per cent, borne by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh.
• Eligible credit types: short-term credit, cash credit limit, working capital limit, Weavers Credit Card, Swarojgar Credit Card.
• Route of payment: the loan amount is provided directly to the woman weaver through selected banks and financial institutions.

Note carefully what the state pays and what it does not. The Rs 2 lakh is bank credit that must be repaid. The government's contribution is the interest subvention, not the principal. Treating the loan as a grant is the single most expensive misunderstanding a weaver can make about this scheme.

Who is eligible for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunkar Yojana?

You can be considered if:

• You are a woman weaver of Arunachal Pradesh, applying individually or as part of a group of women weavers. The published eligibility is explicit that only individual women weavers or groups of women weavers qualify.
• You are in possession of a working loom or looms, this has to be certified by the Circle Officer.
• You are engaged in handloom weaving as an activity requiring working capital, not as an occasional household task.
• You hold a bank account and can satisfy the lending bank's ordinary KYC and credit requirements.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a male weaver. The scheme is restricted to women by design. Male weavers should ask the Department about the Pradhan Mantri Weavers MUDRA scheme, which offers Shishu loans up to Rs 50,000, Kishore up to Rs 5 lakh and Tarun up to Rs 10 lakh with margin money and interest subsidy support.
• You do not have a working loom, so the Circle Officer cannot certify possession.
• You are not a resident of Arunachal Pradesh.
• You are a defaulter on an existing bank loan, since the credit decision still rests with the lending bank and its own norms apply.

What documents are required?

How to apply for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Bunkar Yojana

The scheme runs through the circle administration and the banking system rather than through an online portal.

1. Approach your District Textile Office (Department of Textile and Handicrafts) and ask for the current DDUBY application format and the list of participating banks in your district.
2. Get the Circle Officer's certificate. Take the Circle Officer to see, or present evidence of, your working loom. The Circle Officer certifies that you are in possession of a working loom or looms; without this certificate the application does not move.
3. Complete the application form with your personal details, weaving activity, the working capital you need and your bank account details, and attach the identity proof, residence proof, photographs and the weaver card if you hold one.
4. Submit the application through the Circle Officer, who forwards it onward. Take a dated acknowledgement.
5. Complete the bank formalities. The selected bank or financial institution processes the credit. A cash credit or working capital limit, a Weavers Credit Card or a Swarojgar Credit Card as applicable, and disburses directly to your account.
6. Operate the limit and repay on schedule. The interest subvention applies to an account that is being serviced; irregular repayment can put both the subvention and any future limit at risk.

How do I check the status of my DDUBY application?

There are two places to check, and they are different. For the government side: whether the Circle Officer forwarded the file and whether the department has recommended it — follow up at the Circle Office and the District Textile Office with your acknowledgement. For the credit side; whether the limit has been sanctioned and disbursed; follow up with the branch of the bank the application went to, quoting the loan application number the branch gave you. Applications most often stall in the gap between the two, so ask each side whether it has heard from the other.

Why DDUBY applications get rejected

• No Circle Officer certificate, or a certificate that does not clearly state possession of a working loom.
• Applicant is not a woman weaver. The gender condition is absolute.
• Bank-side rejection on credit grounds. An existing default, an unserviced earlier loan, or incomplete KYC. The state facilitates the loan; it does not override the bank's credit appraisal.
• Account not in the applicant's own name. Disbursement is direct to the woman weaver.
• Incomplete residence proof. Arunachal Pradesh residence is a condition of the scheme.

What other support does the Textile and Handicrafts Department offer weavers?

DDUBY sits inside a wider set of departmental schemes that a weaver can combine over time:

• Chief Minister's Indigenous Textile Promotion Scheme, which distributes free yarn to economically weak weavers in order to preserve traditional tribal handloom designs.
• Pradhan Mantri Weavers MUDRA scheme, with Shishu, Kishore and Tarun loan categories, margin money support and interest subsidy.
• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Swalamban Yojana (DDUSY), offering capital subsidy for small and medium enterprises for loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, with an additional interest subsidy component for women entrepreneurs. The natural next step for a weaver who grows into a production unit.
• Rural Skill Development Training Centres, running courses in weaving, tailoring, embroidery, cane and bamboo, carpentry, wood carving and painting, with a stipend for APST trainees at departmental craft centres.
• Handloom weaver identity cards, artisan awards and departmental exhibitions for the sale of products.

Where to get help

Contact the Assistant Director or Craft Superintendent of the Department of Textile and Handicrafts in your district; district administration websites such as Namsai and Lohit publish these officers with mobile numbers: or your Circle Officer for the loom certificate. No statewide helpline number is published for DDUBY specifically, so use the district office contact. Applying is free; no agent is authorised to charge a fee for arranging the loan or the subvention.