Integrated Scheme for Development of Eri Silk Industry (ISDP), Meghalaya

What is the Integrated Scheme for Development of Eri Silk Industry?

The Integrated Scheme for Development of Eri Silk Industry, generally shortened to ISDP, is a centrally sponsored scheme implemented in Meghalaya by the Directorate of Sericulture and Weaving, Government of Meghalaya. The department lists it among its centrally sponsored programmes, and the Meghalaya state portal records the funding share as 90 percent central and 10 percent state, with a launch date of 1 January 2019 and an eligible age band of 18 to 70 years.

The department states three objectives for the scheme:

1. To provide sustainable livelihood to Eri farmers of the state.
2. To create awareness among people, particularly women, that Eri culture is a source of income.
3. To upgrade the rearing skill of farmers through new rearing technology so as to enhance production.

Alongside the statewide effort the department runs a district-focused component, listed on the Meghalaya state portal as Integrated Schemes for Development of Eri Silk Industry in Ri-Bhoi District.

Why Eri silk, and why Meghalaya

Eri is one of the four commercial silks of India, and it behaves differently from the others. The worm feeds on castor and kesseru, both of which grow easily in Meghalaya's hill conditions. The cocoon is open-ended, so the moth emerges without destroying the fibre and the silk is spun rather than reeled. This is why Eri is sometimes called ahimsa silk. The resulting yarn is matte, warm and durable rather than lustrous, and it makes the shawls and stoles the region is known for.

For a hill household the practical attractions are specific:

• Rearing fits around cultivation. Castor and kesseru can grow on field margins and slopes without displacing a food crop.
• The cycle is short. Several rearing cycles are possible in a year, so income comes back quickly compared with a tree crop.
• The work suits household labour, and the department frames the awareness component around women in particular.
• There is a buyer at the end. The department's own Strengthening of Silk Reeling Unit scheme provides marketing support to sericulture farmers by purchasing silk cocoons, so a farmer is not left holding stock with no market.

Who is eligible for ISDP?

You can apply if:

• You are aged 18 to 70 years, the range recorded on the Meghalaya state portal for this scheme.
• You are a farmer in Meghalaya already rearing Eri silkworms, or a prospective Eri farmer wanting to start.
• You have land or secure access to land on which castor or kesseru host plants can be raised, whether under patta or under clan or village tenure certified by your headman.
• You are willing to take up the improved rearing practices the scheme promotes, since technology upgradation is one of its three stated objectives.

The state portal records the target community as ST, consistent with the farming population of the state's hill districts.

You cannot apply if:

• You are below 18 or above 70 years of age.
• You have no access to land for host plantation. Eri rearing cannot be supported in the abstract; without castor or kesseru there is nothing to rear on.
• You are a silk trader, reeler or yarn dealer who does not rear. Such applicants are not eligible as farmer beneficiaries, though the department's reeling and marketing schemes may be relevant to them.
• You are outside Meghalaya.

What assistance does the scheme provide?

The department describes ISDP in terms of outcomes; livelihood, awareness and rearing technology: rather than a fixed benefit table, and it has not published a rupee grant figure for the scheme on its schemes page. In practice the support under an integrated sericulture development scheme of this kind is delivered as a package rather than as cash, and typically covers items such as host plantation raising, rearing appliances and sheds, disease-free layings, and training.

The honest advice for an applicant is to ask the department directly what the current year's assistance package contains, which inputs, in what quantity, and whether any component is reimbursed in cash. Take the funding share, the launch date, the age band and the objectives as established; take any rupee figure you hear informally as unconfirmed until the Directorate states it.

The related Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana component the department runs alongside ISDP gives a sense of what physical support looks like in this sector: expansion of Eri and Muga cultivation in private holdings, and funding for rearing houses, cocoon sheds, equipment and technology upgradation with capacity development.

What documents are required?

How to apply for ISDP

1. Locate the departmental office for your area — the district office of the Sericulture and Weaving Department, or a departmental sericulture farm. Garo Hills applicants deal with the Branch Directorate at Tura; the rest of the state with the Directorate at Shillong. Ri-Bhoi applicants should ask specifically about the Ri-Bhoi district component.
2. Write the application on plain paper, addressed to the officer in charge. State your name, age, village, C&RD Block and district; whether you already rear Eri and for how many cycles; the area you have under castor or kesseru or can plant; and what support you are asking for; host plantation, rearing appliances, a rearing shed, seed or training.
3. Attach your documents; identity proof showing you are aged 18 to 70, land record or headman's certificate for the plantation area, ST certificate if you hold one, and details of any existing rearing.
4. Submit the application at the office and note the date and receiving official. Ask when the current cycle's beneficiary list will be drawn up.
5. Allow the departmental field visit. Sericulture staff normally inspect the host plantation area and the proposed rearing space before a name is confirmed.
6. Attend the training when called. Rearing skill upgradation is a stated objective of the scheme, and attendance is usually the condition on which inputs follow.

How to follow up on your application

Meghalaya does not publish an online tracker for ISDP. Follow it the way the department processes it:

1. Confirm at the district office that your application is registered for the current cycle.
2. Ask whether the field inspection of your plantation area has been done.
3. Ask whether your name is on the approved beneficiary list for the year and, if not, whether it carries forward.
4. After approval, ask what inputs are being issued and on what date.

Why applications get rejected

• No host plantation and no land to raise one. Without castor or kesseru there is no basis for support.
• Age outside the 18 to 70 band recorded on the state portal.
• Land rights unsettled, a common issue where clan land is in dispute.
• Training not attended, where inputs were conditional on it.
• Applying as a trader or reeler under a farmer-facing component.
• Annual target exhausted, which is a deferral rather than a rejection, ask for the application to be carried to the next cycle.

Grievance and help

• District office of the Sericulture and Weaving Department for beneficiary list, inspection and input 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 on plain paper and free. No agent can charge you for enrolment as an Eri farmer beneficiary under a centrally sponsored scheme.