OREANDA-NEWS. Myth: The Government of India is going to amend the provisions under the Handlooms (Reservation of Articles for Production) Act, 1985, in order to give advantages to power looms.
Reality: Some requests were received for review of items reserved for production by handlooms.

After a due examination of the matter, the Government of India has decided not to make any change in the Reservation Order issued under the 1985 Act, thereby protecting the interests of handloom weavers.
On receipt of the requests, the matter was referred to a committee under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner (Handlooms). The committee was formed with the mandate of looking into all relevant issues on the subject and giving its considered views, without hurting the interests of handloom weavers. Two meetings of the committee were held - on 20.3.2015 and 10.4.2015.

The Ministry of Textiles came to the aforementioned decision of maintaining status quo, after examining the views of the committee as well as those of State Governments.

Background

Some sections of the media have been reporting that the Government is going to amend the provisions under the Handlooms (Reservation of Articles for Production) Act, 1985, in order to give advantages to power looms. It has been reported that this would severely affect India’s handloom weavers.

This clarification is being issued to dispel this wrong notion and bring to light the correct factual situation.