Thiru Dayanidhi Maran, Textiles Minister, presented Shilp Guru Awards and National Awards for the year 2007 and 2008 to handicrafts artisans, master crafts person  and master weavers at a glittering ceremony held here today.

While speaking on the occasion, Thiru Maran said that these are not just Awards but the Nation’s gratitude shown to all master crafts persons and weavers for their outstanding contribution in the field of handicrafts and handlooms. While giving the details for the exports of handicrafts and handlooms for the current year, Thiru Maran said that exports of the handicrafts during April – October has touched US $ 1.07 billion  , as against US $ 864 million in the corresponding period of 2009-10, denoting an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year.  Whereas exports of the handlooms during April – July were US $116.76 million, as against US $71.65 million during the corresponding period of last year, denoting  an increase of 63%.  The target set for the exports of handlooms is Us $ 300 million during the current financial year, Thiru Maran added.  He expressed the hope that Shilp Gurus , Masterweavers and Mastercraft persons and the entire handlooms and handicrafts sectors will strive for achieving the export targets set by the Government.

 Thiru Maran expressed the satisfaction over the  several schemes of the Textiles Ministry being implemented to help the artisans and weavers to upgrade their skills and processing techniques so as to enable them to obtain additional  income, Thiru Maran said.  He said that financial assistance of Rs. 70 crores is  given to each mega clusters   to provide infrastructure and production facilities through adoption of Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development  Approach. In addition, the Ministry has also launched  recently Integrated Skill Development Scheme for the upgradation of the skills of 30 lakh workers in 5 years with  an outlay of Rs. 2400 crore.  These workers include 13 lakh handicraft artisans and over 1.5 lakh handloom artisans, Thiru Maran said.

Thiru Maran further said that Textile Ministry is seriously considering to launch a dedicated scheme at a cost of Rs. 136 crore for North-Eastern Region for providing handicraft artisans belonging to that region facilities for design development ,marketing, infrastructure and skill ulpgradation.

During the ceremony, Thiru Maran presented Shilp Guru Awards  to 20 handicraft artisans and 91 National Awards  to the master craftspersons and master weavers.

At the function, Smt. Panabakka Lakshmi also addressed the gathering and highlighted the various welfare schemes for handloom weavers and handicrafts artisans being implemented by the Textiles  Ministry.

The function was attended by Smt. Rita Menon, Secretary. Textiles, development Commissioner (Handlooms), Development Commissioner (Handicrafts)  and senior officials of the Ministry.

BACKGROUND:

(A)              The Shilp Guru Award for the Mastercraftspersons was introduced during the year 2002 on the occasion of “ Golden Jubilee Year of Handicrafts Resurgence in India and these awards are conferred to legendary mastercraftspersons of Handicrafts whose work and dedication have contributed not only to the preservation of rich and diverse craft heritage of the country, but also to the resurgence of handicrafts sector as a whole.

            Each Award consists of one mounted gold coin, one shawl and a citation.  In addition, financial assistance to the extent of Rs. 6.00 lakhs is also gien to each selected Shilp Guru to innovate and create 5 new products of high level of excellence, high aesthetic value and high quality befitting the stature of the Guru.

(B)              National Awards to Master Craftspersons and masterweavers were introduced in 1965.  The award comprises of a cash prize of Rs.1,00,000/-, a Certificate, Tamrapatra and an Angavastram.

RM/JL