Income Generation Programme for Weavers, Meghalaya

What is the Income Generation Programme for Weavers?

The Income Generation Programme for Weavers is a State Plan scheme of the Directorate of Sericulture and Weaving, Government of Meghalaya. Its stated objective is to promote traditional women weaver entrepreneurs and new weavers so as to raise the production of handloom fabrics, and the mechanism is simple: the government provides yarn to weavers in the state free of cost.

The Meghalaya state portal records the scheme under the Textiles head as 100 percent state funded, with an eligible age range of 18 to 70 years, the target community recorded as ST, and the application mode recorded as "Application in Plain paper".

The scheme is one of the department's six handloom sector schemes, and it is the most direct of them. Where other schemes build training capacity or production infrastructure, this one removes the single obstacle that stops a skilled weaver from weaving; not skill, not a loom, but the cash to buy yarn.

Why free yarn changes a weaver's economics

• Yarn is the largest working-capital item in handloom weaving, and it must be paid for weeks before the fabric earns anything.
• A weaver without cash for yarn either stops weaving or borrows, often from the trader who will later buy her cloth at a price that reflects the debt.
• Removing the yarn cost converts a weaver's labour directly into income instead of into debt service.
• For an elderly weaver with a lifetime of skill but no capital, free yarn is the difference between an active loom and an idle one, which is why the age ceiling is set at 70 rather than at retirement age.

Who is eligible for the Income Generation Programme for Weavers?

You can apply if:

• You are aged between 18 and 70 years, the range recorded on the Meghalaya state portal.
• You are a traditional woman weaver in Meghalaya, or a new weaver taking up handloom weaving.
• You live and weave in Meghalaya. The scheme's target community is recorded as ST, consistent with the weaving population of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills.
• You have a working loom, or access to one at a departmental handloom production centre.

You cannot apply if:

• You are below 18 or above 70 years of age.
• You do not weave. A non-weaver is not eligible, however genuine the need, because the yarn is issued against production.
• You are a trader, yarn dealer or reseller. Yarn issued free and then sold on defeats the scheme, and such applicants are not eligible.
• You weave outside Meghalaya.
• You have drawn an earlier allotment and cannot account for the fabric produced from it. Departmental offices normally hold further issue until that is settled.

What is given, and how much?

The benefit is yarn, free of cost. The department does not publish a per-weaver quantity or a rupee value on its schemes page or on the state portal entry, and that is honest to how the scheme runs: the quantity issued to a given weaver depends on the yarn in stock, the number of looms she works, and the fabric she produces.

The department's yarn comes from the National Handloom Development Corporation Ltd, Guwahati, the same source that stocks the Mini Yarn Bank. Between the two schemes the department handles Mulberry silk, Eri silk, Muga silk, dyed acrylic yarn and cotton yarn of different counts. Eri silk in particular is Meghalaya's own, spun rather than reeled, and the fibre the state's sericulture farms and research work are built around.

When you apply, ask two concrete questions rather than asking for "some yarn": which varieties and counts are in stock, and what quantity per loom the office is currently issuing.

What documents do I need?

How to apply for free yarn under the programme

1. Find the departmental office nearest you, the district office of the Sericulture and Weaving Department, a departmental handloom production centre, or a weaving training centre. Garo Hills weavers should approach the Branch Directorate at Tura; elsewhere the Directorate at Shillong is the controlling office.
2. Write the application on plain paper. Give your name, age, village and district, whether you are a traditional weaver or a new weaver, how many looms you work, the fabric you weave, and the yarn variety, count and quantity you are asking for.
3. Attach your documents: identity proof showing you are between 18 and 70, ST certificate if you hold one, and your weaver card, centre record or training certificate.
4. Submit the application at the office and note the date and the receiving official. Ask when the current issue cycle is expected to open if it is not open now.
5. Collect the yarn against a receipt showing variety, count and weight when your allotment is sanctioned.
6. Keep a record of the fabric you produce. Departmental offices ask about output before issuing a further allotment, and a weaver who can show what she wove is issued again without difficulty.

Why a weaver may not get yarn

• Stock exhausted for the variety or count requested. This is the ordinary constraint, not a rejection — ask when the next NHDC consignment is due.
• Age outside the 18 to 70 band recorded on the state portal.
• Weaver status not established for a new applicant with no loom, no centre attachment and no training record.
• Previous allotment unaccounted for, where the fabric from an earlier issue was never reported.
• Application made at the wrong office, most often a Garo Hills weaver writing to Shillong instead of Tura.

Related schemes worth asking about

• Establishment of Mini Yarn Bank, the same yarn varieties at subsidised cost, useful when the free allotment runs out mid-order.
• Handloom Weaving Training Centre at Saikarap and Nongtrai, for a new weaver with no skill base.
• Handloom Training and Research, offering short courses in designing, dyeing, printing and embroidery, and engaging progressive weavers to develop intricate, higher-value products.
• Intensive Handloom Fabric Production, which employs weavers who do not own a loom at departmental production centres.
• Integrated Textiles Tourism Complex, Nongpoh, in Ri-Bhoi district, which shows the whole silk chain from cultivation to finished garment and creates a retail outlet for weavers' work.

Grievance and help

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

The application is free and made on plain paper. The yarn itself is free of cost, so any demand for payment; by an official or an intermediary, is improper and should be reported to the Directorate.