Shillong Aug 14: Around 7,200 youth in Meghalaya will be imparted skill development training in apparel and garmenting, textiles and handloom sectors under the Samarth scheme of the Central government, in joint venture between the Central and the State government.

Sixteen State Governments have already signed MoU with the Ministry of Textiles at a function in New Delhi on Wednesday to take Samarth – Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS) forward.

Eighteen states have agreed to partner with the Ministry under the scheme out of which Jammu & Kashmir and Odisha were not present during the function.

Initially, the Ministry has allocated over 3.5 lakh targets to the agencies nominated by State Governments to implement this scheme. After the training, employment will be provided to all these beneficiaries in various textiles related activities. The programme covers the entire value chain of the textiles sector except spinning and weaving.

The training programme involves advanced technology oriented features like Aadhaar Based Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), CCTV recording, dedicated Call Centre, Mobile App based Management Information System and on-line monitoring.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister of Textiles and Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Irani, said that the signing of MoUs with State Governments showed the commitment of the Ministry to extend its support to the state agency and make them equal partners for building the spirit of national development to boost the textiles sector.

Irani also said that the targets set out by some of the States like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand are much below the requirement of skilled workers in textiles industry in those states and urged them to relook at the targets.

She said that the Ministry will try to ensure that those who are not employed by the industry may get additional benefits provided by financial services under Mudra scheme.

She said that the resolve to skill over 4 lakh people is a big step and every effort must be made to achieve it. The Minister said that she will be visiting the training facilities in different states to take stock of the situation.

Smt Irani also said that 75% of the workers engaged in the textiles sector and 70% of the beneficiaries of the Mudra loan are women, while asking North Eastern States to focus on silk and jute sector and review the targets of skilling under Samarth scheme.