PATNA – The Bihar government plans to emboss the Handloom Mark to all handloom cotton and silk products woven in the state for the sake of authenticity and transparency in subsidy distribution. It will also help identify which product has been woven where and by whom.’
About this, Principal Secretary, S Siddharth said, “We are planning to start labeling all handloom products in the state with the Handloom Mark, which is provided by the central government.”
This will help in differentiating handloom products with power loom and mill products and will also eliminate fake products from the market, he added.
The step will bring transparency in subsidy distribution, as the number printed on the label will denote who wove what and where, Secretary said.
At present, there are around 6,741 active handlooms in Bihar with unique identification numbers, while the state government is trying to increase the number to 10,000. It wants to expand to all products, except low-priced ones such as gamchha (towel), lungi and handkerchief.
The Handloom Mark scheme was launched in 2006 under the office of the development commissioner for handlooms, with the textiles committee under the ministry of textiles as the implementing agency to give a collective identity to handloom products that would help guarantee for the buyer that the product being bought is genuinely hand-woven.
The National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, had designed its logo from the interlocking of the warp and the weft to form a three-dimensional cube.
So far, Bihar has been using Handloom Mark labels in the satrangi chadar – the hospital bedsheet scheme meant for government hospitals since 2017-18.
