Thirty long years after it was vandalised by Bodo insurgents, Assam's oldest Khadi institutions has been revived as a silk reeling centre by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Entreprises (MSME) said.
The Khadi workshed at village Kawali in Baksa district of Assam, located 90 km from Guwahati, was burned down by Bodo insurgents in 1989.
KVIC chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said the revival of this Khadi workshed assumed historical significance and that resumption of Khadi activities would create employment for the locals.
"To begin with, KVIC will develop this unit for reeling of elegant Eri Silk of Assam. Other Khadi activities like manufacturing of village industry products will also be started in future. This center will become a major employment creator for the local artisans,” Saxena said.
Spinning and weaving activities at the silk reeling centre will restart at the workshed with 15 women artisans and five other staffs in the second week of February, the MSME said in a statement.
The ministry stated that workshed was constructed by a Khadi institution called Tamulpur Anchalik Gramdan Sangh which shifted to Assam from Arunachal Pradesh following the Chinese aggression in 1962.
It began operations with mustard oil production and by the year 1970, spinning and weaving activities also started there providing livelihood to 50 artisan families. However, the institution was burned down by extremists in 1989 and it remained defunct since then, it said.
The workshed has been refurbished with the financial assistance from KVIC. The idea behind the workshed scheme is to provide better working condition to the Khadi artisans that will ultimately improve their productivity. In recent years, KVIC has revived several such Khadi institutions in states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Odisha and Tamil Nadu that were lying defunct for many decades, the ministry added.
