Establishment of Mini Yarn Bank, Meghalaya

What is the Mini Yarn Bank scheme?

The Establishment of Mini Yarn Bank is a State Plan scheme of the Directorate of Sericulture and Weaving, Government of Meghalaya, listed among the department's handloom sector schemes. Its purpose, in the department's own words, is procuring "3 (Three) varieties of yarn, Mulberry Silk, Eri Silk, Muga Silk, Dyed Acrylic Yarn and Cotton Yarn of different count" for distribution through departmental handloom centres and to individual weavers.

The source of procurement is fixed and stated: the National Handloom Development Corporation Ltd (NHDC), Guwahati. NHDC is the central public sector undertaking that supplies yarn to the handloom sector across India, and buying through it lets a small state department place bulk orders at mill rates instead of leaving each weaver to buy retail.

The Meghalaya state portal records the scheme under the Textiles head as 100 percent state funded, with the application mode listed as "Application in Plain paper" and the target community recorded as ST.

Why a yarn bank is the department's chosen intervention

• Yarn is the largest recurring cost a handloom weaver faces, and it must be paid for before any fabric can be sold.
• Meghalaya has no large yarn market of its own, so weavers buy from traders in small quantities at the highest per-kilogram price in the chain.
• A weaver who cannot buy yarn simply does not weave that month, however skilled she is and however good the loom.
• Holding stock in a departmental bank means a weaver can draw yarn when an order arrives rather than when she happens to have cash.

What does the Mini Yarn Bank supply?

The mix matters. A department that stocked only silk would serve the high-value end of the market and leave out the weaver producing everyday cloth; stocking dyed acrylic and cotton of several counts alongside the three silks keeps both kinds of weaver supplied.

Who is eligible for yarn from the Mini Yarn Bank?

You can obtain yarn if:

• You are a handloom weaver in Meghalaya, whether you work at a departmental handloom production centre or on your own loom at home.
• You are attached to a departmental handloom centre, which is the primary distribution channel named in the scheme description, or you approach the department as an individual weaver, which the scheme explicitly covers.
• You are a resident of the state. The state portal records the scheme's target community as ST, consistent with the handloom weaving population of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills.

You cannot obtain yarn if:

• You do not weave. The Mini Yarn Bank is not a public yarn shop, and a non-weaver is not eligible.
• You are a trader or reseller buying yarn to sell on. The subsidy is meant to reach the loom, not a middleman.
• You are a weaver outside Meghalaya.
• The variety or count you want is out of stock. The bank issues what it has procured from NHDC; it does not substitute a different silk for the one you asked for.

How to apply for yarn from the Mini Yarn Bank

1. Identify your nearest departmental point. The handloom production centre, weaving training centre or the district office of the Sericulture and Weaving Department. In the Garo Hills the Branch Directorate at Tura is the controlling office; elsewhere it is the Directorate at Shillong.
2. Write an application on plain paper, addressed to the officer in charge. State your name, village, district, the number and type of looms you work, the fabric you weave, and the yarn variety, count and quantity you need.
3. Attach your identity documents — Aadhaar or EPIC, your ST certificate if you have one, and your weaver identity card or centre membership record if applicable.
4. Submit the application at the centre or district office and ask whether the variety and count you need is currently in stock, or when the next NHDC consignment is expected.
5. Pay the subsidised issue price for the quantity sanctioned and collect the yarn against a receipt showing variety, count, weight and price.
6. Keep the receipt. It is your record of what you drew and the basis for the next issue.

How do I check whether yarn is available?

There is no online stock display for the Mini Yarn Bank. Availability is checked in person or by telephone with the centre or district office. Two questions get you a usable answer:

1. Which varieties and counts are in stock right now, and in what quantity per weaver.
2. When is the next consignment from NHDC Guwahati expected, so you can time a larger order around it.

Weavers who plan around consignment arrivals rather than around their own cash cycle get better service from the scheme.

Common reasons a weaver goes away empty-handed

• Stock exhausted for the specific silk variety or cotton count requested. This is the ordinary constraint, and the fix is to ask about the next consignment date rather than to reapply immediately.
• Weaver status not established, where an independent weaver has no card and no centre attachment and cannot show that a loom is actually in use.
• Quantity requested out of proportion to the number of looms declared.
• Request routed to the wrong office, for example a Garo Hills weaver writing to Shillong instead of the Branch Directorate at Tura.

How the Mini Yarn Bank fits the department's other schemes

The Sericulture and Weaving Department runs the yarn bank alongside several related schemes, and a weaver is often eligible for more than one:

• Income Generation Programme for Weavers, which supplies yarn free of cost to traditional women weavers and new weavers.
• Intensive Handloom Fabric Production, which manufactures fabric at departmental production centres and employs weavers who have no loom of their own.
• Handloom Training and Research, offering short courses in designing, dyeing, printing and embroidery.
• Handloom Weaving Training Centres at Saikarap and Nongtrai for unemployed youth.
• Strengthening of Silk Reeling Unit, which buys cocoons from sericulture farmers and reels raw silk, closing the loop between the state's silk farmers and its weavers.

Ask about all of these on the same visit. A weaver who qualifies for free yarn under the Income Generation Programme has no reason to buy the same yarn from the bank.

Grievance and help

• District office of the Sericulture and Weaving Department for stock, issue price and quantity questions.
• Branch Directorate, Tura for the Garo Hills districts.
• Directorate of Sericulture and Weaving, Government of Meghalaya, Shillong for scheme policy and unresolved complaints.
• stateportal-meg[at]gov[dot]in for queries about the scheme entry on meghalaya.gov.in.

The application is made on plain paper and no application fee is charged. Yarn is sold at the subsidised price fixed by the department, and no intermediary is authorised to add a margin on top of it.