Carpet-making centres to give women steady jobs, says Chandrapur collector
Collector Vasumana Pant visited MAVIM carpet-making centres at Mul and Savli to review production and suggest ways to expand employment for women.
In Chandrapur, carpet-making centres have been set up at Mul and Savli under the Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM) with the aim of giving women steady employment. District Collector Vasumana Pant visited both centres on the 16th to review their work.
Pant first visited the carpet-making centre at Mul MIDC, where she spoke directly with the women weaving the carpets. She took stock of how the production process works, the production capacity, how the goods are sold, and how much employment the work is providing to the women. Chhaya Shende, president of the Maitrin community-run resource centre, welcomed the collector and briefed her on the centre's work.
During the inspection, Collector Pant said that carpets are currently made by hand, and that adding modern and advanced equipment would help increase production capacity. She also said that if attractive, good-quality carpets could be made while keeping production costs under control, they could find a good market at tourist destinations such as Tadoba. Pant suggested that attention also be paid to making attractive carpet frames alongside the carpets.
The collector then inspected the newly built carpet-making centre at Savli. She said the construction of this centre had been excellent and that plans should be made to develop it as a "centre of excellence" for carpet-making and training. She also suggested that women be given more extensive training here to build their skills, so that they could get steady opportunities for employment and income.
It was noted on the occasion that if women linked to self-help groups and community-run resource centres under MAVIM are given carpet-making skills, modern technology and proper marketing support, this could become a strong source of employment for rural women. Connecting local products to the tourism market would further boost women's economic empowerment.
The visit was attended by Mul Sub-Divisional Officer Nitin Jadhav, MAVIM district coordination officer Pradeep Kathole, Public Works Department Nagbhid sub-engineer Sheetal Damle, Maitrin community-run resource centre president Chhaya Shende, along with concerned officials, staff and the women carpet weavers.
