Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme

What is the Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme?

Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme is a Manipur state scheme run by the Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Government of Manipur, with Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd (MHHDC) as the implementing agency. According to the Directorate, the scheme was launched on 29 June 2017 as part of the first 100 days of the then new state government.

The scheme addresses a practical problem in Manipur's handloom economy. A weaver in a village far from Imphal spends time and money travelling to buy yarn, and travels again to sell finished cloth, and in both journeys is a price-taker. Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme closes both gaps by taking yarn and raw material to the weaver's or artisan's doorstep and buying back the finished handloom and handicraft products they produce.

That combination, delivery plus buy-back, is what distinguishes this scheme from the Directorate's other raw material support. A yarn subsidy lowers the price of an input. This scheme changes the logistics of the entire production cycle for a household weaver, and gives a guaranteed offtake for what comes off the loom.

Who can and cannot benefit from the Home Delivery Scheme?

You can be enrolled if:

• You are a handloom weaver or handicraft artisan in Manipur who is actually producing.
• You are a resident of Manipur. This is a state scheme funded by the Government of Manipur.
• You have a reachable delivery address, since the scheme's core service is doorstep supply.
• You have a bank account, needed for payment when your finished products are bought back.

You cannot apply if:

• You are a trader, retailer or middleman rather than a producer. The scheme targets weavers and artisans directly, and the buy-back leg presumes you make the product yourself.
• You do not weave or make handicrafts at all.
• You live outside Manipur.

The Directorate has not published an income, caste or age condition for this scheme, and none should be assumed.

How to apply for the Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme

1. Approach the Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd or your district office of the Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles. The scheme has no online application and no portal form.
2. Ask to be enrolled as a weaver or artisan under the home delivery arrangement. Carry your weaver or artisan identity card, Aadhaar card and proof that you live in Manipur.
3. Register your delivery address in full, village or locality, leikai or ward, and district. Doorstep delivery only works if the address is precise.
4. Give your bank account details, account number, bank, branch and IFSC — so that the corporation can pay you when it buys back your finished goods.
5. Place your raw material requirement with the corporation, stating the type and quantity of yarn or raw material you need for your products.
6. Keep the delivery and buy-back records. These are your evidence of both the material received and the goods sold.

What did the scheme do during the COVID-19 lockdown?

Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme proved its usefulness during the COVID-19 lockdown. The Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles recorded that during the lockdown many weavers were facing a shortage of yarn, and that Manipur Handloom and Handicraft Corporation Ltd began delivering yarn at the doorstep of weavers in order to relieve their burden.

That episode is worth knowing about for a practical reason. It shows the delivery machinery is real and has been used at scale in an emergency, rather than existing only on paper, and it is the clearest published account of the scheme in operation.

How does the buy-back work?

The buy-back leg means the implementing corporation purchases the finished handloom and handicraft products a beneficiary produces from the delivered raw material. For a household weaver, this converts an uncertain market into a known buyer.

The Directorate has not published a per-product rate card, a per-weaver purchase ceiling or a fixed annual value for the buy-back. A weaver should therefore settle these terms with the corporation at the time of enrolment, which raw materials are delivered, at what price, which products are bought back, at what rate, and how soon payment reaches the bank account. Do not assume a rate from another scheme applies here.

What is not published about this scheme

Being straightforward about the gaps is more useful than filling them in. The following details are not available on the Directorate's published material as of August 2026:

• A fixed rupee benefit ceiling per weaver or artisan.
• A published application form or prescribed format.
• District-wise beneficiary numbers or an annual target.
• A stated last date, which is consistent with an enrolment-based rather than round-based scheme.

Anyone quoting a precise rupee figure for this scheme should be asked for the official notification it comes from.

How the scheme fits into Manipur's handloom marketing effort

Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme is one part of a wider attempt by the Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles to fix the market end of Manipur's handloom economy, not only the production end.

The Directorate's reasoning, stated in its Schemes for Awardees description, is that Manipur has no surplus produce in agriculture, fishery, sericulture or horticulture, but the handloom sector regularly produces surplus fabric. A surplus only has value if it can be sold, which is why the department runs several marketing-side programmes alongside this one:

• Manipur International Textile Expo (MANITEX), an exhibition platform for the state's textile products.
• Handloom Export Development Approach, aimed at employment generation through exports from the handloom industry.
• Schemes for Awardees (SFA), which supports state and national awardee weavers in producing at commercial scale.

Home delivery with buy-back is the most direct of these for an ordinary weaver, because it does not require the weaver to reach a market, an expo or an exporter at all. The corporation comes to the door in both directions.

Production-side support runs separately, through the Yarn Scheme's 20 per cent subsidy, the Loom Upgradation Scheme, the Dyeing and Printing Scheme and the Cotton Plantation Scheme.

Where to get help

Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Manipur Directorate Complex, Lamphelpat, Imphal West Phone: +91 385 2410687 Email: support@dhtmanipur.com

The implementing agency, Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd, is the body to approach for enrolment, delivery scheduling and buy-back payments. Scheme notices are published at dhtmanipur.mn.gov.in, though as of August 2026 several individual scheme pages on that site were unavailable, so the district office is the more reliable route.

How to check your application status

Handloom and Handicrafts Home Delivery Scheme has no online portal and no application-tracking dashboard, so there is no reference number or login to check. Status here means confirming where you stand in the enrolment, delivery and buy-back cycle, and that has to be done offline, directly with the people running the scheme.

• Visit or call the Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd office that enrolled you, and ask specifically whether your name is on the current delivery list for your area, since delivery usually happens area by area rather than to every enrolled weaver at once.
• Contact your district office of the Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles if you enrolled through the district rather than directly with the corporation. The district office can confirm whether your enrolment record has been forwarded to the corporation for scheduling.
• Call the Directorate helpline at +91 385 2410687 or email support@dhtmanipur.com if you cannot reach the local office, and quote your name, village or leikai, and the date you enrolled.
• Check your delivery and buy-back records you were told to keep. If you have received a yarn delivery but not yet been paid for a buy-back, ask the corporation for an expected payment date rather than assuming a delay means rejection.
• Follow up in person during the corporation's next scheduled delivery round in your area if phone contact is unreliable, since field staff visiting for deliveries can usually confirm your enrolment status on the spot.

Because enrolment is continuous rather than a batch process with a fixed result date, silence after applying is common and is not itself a sign of rejection. Persistent follow-up with the district office is the only real substitute for a tracking number.

Common reasons for rejection

The scheme is enrolment-based rather than form-based, so most of what would count as "rejection" elsewhere shows up here as a weaver never being added to a delivery list, or being dropped from one. The Directorate has not published a formal rejection process, but the following are the practical reasons enrolment does not go through or a buy-back is refused.

• You are not an active producer. The scheme is meant for weavers and artisans who are actually weaving cloth or making handicraft items. If you cannot show a loom, workspace or ongoing production, the corporation has no basis to enrol you for raw material delivery. Fix: enrol through a weaver or artisan identity card, or ask your district office how to obtain one first if you do not have one.
• You are functioning as a trader or aggregator rather than a maker. Someone who buys finished products from other weavers to resell, rather than making the product themselves, does not fit the buy-back model, since the corporation buys back what the enrolled producer personally made. Fix: enrol individually as the actual maker, not through an intermediary.
• Your delivery address is incomplete or unverifiable. Doorstep delivery depends on a precise village or leikai, ward and district. A vague or outdated address means the corporation cannot schedule you into a delivery round. Fix: give the fullest possible address and update it immediately if you move.
• You live outside Manipur. This is a state-funded scheme for residents of Manipur only. Fix: none, this is a firm boundary of the scheme, not a documentation issue.
• Your bank account details are missing or incorrect. Buy-back payment depends on a working account number, bank, branch and IFSC. An error here does not stop the raw material delivery but does block payment for finished goods. Fix: recheck your bank details with the corporation and update them if you have changed banks or branches.
• You did not place a clear raw material requirement. If the type and quantity of yarn or raw material you need is not specified, the corporation cannot plan what to bring on its next delivery round to your area. Fix: state your requirement in specific terms (type of yarn, quantity) rather than a general request.
• The finished product offered for buy-back does not match what was delivered. If the raw material delivered to you was not used to produce the item you bring for buy-back, the corporation can decline the purchase since the buy-back is tied to material it supplied. Fix: keep your delivery and buy-back records so you can show the link between the raw material received and the product produced.