Aiming to scale up employment at rural locations and push up the khadi and village industries products from the villages, the khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has initiated a project named khadi Gaon.

The Commission will select individuals interested to be self-reliant through khadi spinning and other cottage industries and provide them basic training to operate along with the material required for such activities.

On the sidelines of a two-day workshop on agro-based khadi and village industries held by KVIC at Gujarat Vidyapeeth in Ahmedabad, the chairman of the commission, Vinai Kumar Saxena said, "We will select people who are interested to spin a charkha or other cottage industry at villages. They will be provided charkha and even training to profitably run it. Initially we plan to have five villages in each of the states across the country. This we will achieve in about a year's time. The first of such khadi Gaon is being developed at Vanej village in Banaskantha district in North Gujarat."

The possible rural industries include small oil mills, bakery, charkha, agarbatti (incense sticks making), candle making, pottery, honey bee cultivation among others.

"And there will also be an outlet at each of these villages to sell the products made by the people of the village. This will not just increase employment but also provide a platform to rural artisans to display their skills and earn out of it," Saxena said.

Commenting on the innovations in charkha, Saxena informed that use of technology and changes in design will make charkha spinning more profitable for rural population especially women.

"We are changing the existing charkha (amber) design from 8 spindles to 10 spindles. We are also making it light-weight by using technology. This will increase the income by 25 per cent. We are trying to ensure that one khadi artisan should be able to make about 225-250 per day of earning," added Saxena.

About 25-26 lakh people get direct employment from khadi and village industries, which is likely to reach a turnover of Rs 1900-2000 crore by the end of this fiscal.

"We have already achieved 80 per cent of the targeted turnover for this year. Last year we had achieved khadi sale of about 1510 crore, while in the next two year, we plan to touch Rs 5000 crore khadi sale," he added.

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