Textile Minister Santosh Gangwar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that the entire textile sector, including garments and fibre, be linked to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA).

The proposal, if accepted, will not only guarantee minimum wages to workers in the textile sector but also ensure adequate availability of labour for manufacturers.

“I have written to the Prime Minister to link the entire textile sector with MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee) Scheme. It will ensure that the thousands of workers employed in the sector get a guaranteed minimum wage,” Gangwar told Business Line .

The Textiles Ministry is also in talks with the Labour Ministry to streamline labour laws for the sector. This may form part of the National Textiles Policy which Gangwar hopes to finalise by August 15.

The draft policy, which will be uploaded on the Ministry’s Web site soon, will invite comments from all, the Minister said.

The new Textiles Policy will have a vision statement for the sector for the next 10 years that would include the target of trebling India’s market share in the world from the current 4 per cent.

Textiles park soon

Gangwar said that the proposed textiles parks with initial investment of ₹100 crore – 40 per cent of which would be subsidy from the Government – were also expected to be set up soon. “August 7 is the last date for the bids,” the Minister said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the setting up of 25 textile parks in this year’s Budget.

The textile industry, especially garments manufacturers, has been long demanding that the MGNREGA scheme be available for workers who seek employment in their sector. The industry has been facing a shortage of labour during peak demand season, as many workers prefer to work under MGNREGA schemes that guarantee minimum wages for a minimum 100 days in a year for every household.

The MGNREGA scheme has already been extended for silk cultivation, and a proposal had been made by the previous UPA Government to extend it to the handloom sector.

The textile sector is the second largest employment generating sector after agriculture in the country employing about 35 million people.

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