Tracking The Benefits Trail: Textiles

IndiaSpend in an earlier report documented the overall federal subsidy pile covering primarily food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies. Now, Sourjya Bhowmick embarks on a department by department tour to list the many ‘benefits’ that mark the Budget documents every year. The first stop is the Ministry of Textiles.

The Textile Ministry comprises of divisions like Handicrafts, Handloom, Wool, Sericulture and Powerloom. Most of the schemes centre around the Handicraft and Handloom sectors though.

In the Handicraft division, there are 7 measures that directly benefit the community at a micro level. Let’s look at their funding pattern in Budget 2012.

Funding For Handicraft Schemes

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

Handloom Industry also includes some benefits; two of them are directly aimed at the people. They are:

• Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme- Budgeted Rs 105 crore (2012)
• Diversified Handloom Development Scheme- Budgeted Rs 20 crore. (2012)

A sum of Rs 289 crore (handloom + handicraft) goes as a direct benefit to the people. The total budget for the Ministry of Textile this year is Rs 7,836 crore. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced a package of Rs 3,884 crore towards the waiver of loans of handloom weavers and their cooperative societies in this year’s budget.

Funding Handloom Schemes

Let’s take a closer look at these benefits and the money that is pumped into them.

Ambedkar Hastshilp Yojana (AHY) is meant for Design workshops. An amount of Rs 1.40 lakh is sanctioned per training which covers travel allowance/ dearness allowance for participants, course material, and faculty expenditure. Funds are generally released in 2 instalments, 80% as advance and remaining on completion. Rs 37 crore has been allotted for the scheme this year.

The following table gives an idea of the funding pattern for the last five years;

Funding Pattern Of Ambedkar Hastshilp Yojana

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

Since 2007-08 a total of Rs 270 crore (including Rs 37 crore of Budget 2012) has been allotted for this scheme.

Textile Labour Relief Fund Scheme (TLRFS)

This is a scheme that provides aid to the individual eligible textile workers who have been unemployed due to the permanent closure of a textile unit. Relief is provided in a tapering basis and does not extend beyond the retirement age of the worker.

In the first year of the closure of the unit, 75% of the equivalent wage is provided. In the second year post closure of the unit, 50% of the equivalent wage is given and 25% in the third year.

The table below gives the idea of the funding for the last few years;

Decreased Funding For Textile Labour Relief

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

As we can see from above, the rehabilitation budget has been steadily decreasing every year. This year, about Rs 8 crore was allocated to the scheme. Since 2007, about Rs 128 crore has been allotted to this scheme.

Handicrafts Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme

This is a health insurance scheme aimed at financially aiding the weaver community to access better healthcare facilities. An individual must earn 50% of his income from the industry to be eligible. This scheme also covers the weaver’s family.

The table below shows the funding for scheme;

Funding Healthcare For Weavers

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

A total of Rs 224 crore has been budgeted for the healthcare scheme for the weavers.

Grants in Aid For Handicrafts

Grants in Aid are provided under various heads such as Training, Marketing, Research and Development and Human Resource Development. Here are details of these benefits:

• Training - Organisations and experts are given financial assistance to conduct training of artisans etc to upgrade production and generate employment.
• Marketing - The objective is to provide direct marketing outlets living in far off areas and increase their sales and eliminate the role of middlemen. Rs 1.85 lakh is allotted per exhibition.
• R&D - Assistance provided to reputed organization/scholars that are associated with the promotion of handicrafts.
• HRD - Grant of Rs 10.64 lakh per year, for a period of five years to institutes who are to provide a capable workforce.

The budget for all these Grants in Aid for the last few years has been;

Allocations Over Last 4 Years

(Rs crore)

Source: Union Budget

A total of Rs 406 crore has been allocated for Grants In Aid since 2008-09. About Rs 99 crore was allotted in this year’s budget.

Handloom

The benefits given out in the handloom industry are almost the same as those given out in the handicraft industry for the exception of the Integrated Handloom Development Scheme and the Diversified Handloom Development Scheme.

Integrated Handloom Development Scheme

This scheme is aimed at bringing about sustainable development of handloom weavers into a cohesive self managing and socio economic unit. It also tries to empower the weavers to meet challenges in emerging markets.

Increased Funding For Handloom Development

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

A total of Rs 405 crore has been allocated to this scheme since 2008-09. Rs 170 crore has been allotted for this scheme in this year’s budget.

Diversified Handloom Development Scheme

The main aim of this scheme is to upgrade the skills of handloom weavers through training, workshops etc. During the XIth plan (2007 – 2012), a total of Rs 73 crore has been spent on this scheme.

The funding of this scheme has been;

Increased Funding For Handloom Development

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

A total of Rs 69 crore has been allocated for this scheme since 2008-09. In Budget 2012, Rs 20 has been set aside for this scheme.

Handloom Weavers Comprehensive Welfare Scheme

Just like in the case of Handicrafts, this is also a health insurance scheme which aims at providing financial assistance to handloom weavers to get access to better healthcare facilities. To benefit from this scheme, a weaver must get 50% of his income from the industry. This scheme also covers the weaver’s family.

Let’s see what the expenditures were;

Increased Healthcare Coverage For Weavers

(Rs Crore)

Source: Union Budget

A total of Rs 385 crore has been spent on this scheme since 2008-09. Interestingly, the expenditure on handloom weaver’s healthcare scheme has been much more as compared to handicraft workers.