Government of India has reportedly said that more than 5 lakh textile workers, weavers and artisans have opened bank accounts to reduce impact of demonetisation in the past two weeks. These include regular workers, migrant labourers and those working on contract basis. Most of the accounts have been opened in textile and garmenting hubs like Surat, Tirupur and Bhiwandi. Among them, 2.2 lakh are weavers and 2.75 lakh are employed in the jute industry.
Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner, told a leading Indian daily, “We have opened bank accounts of 2 lakh workers in the last six days. We are scaling up our efforts many fold to open accounts of almost all workers in three months and enable almost all of them to download digital payment transfer apps also in next three months.”
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In 2015-16, textile and apparel sector employed 51 million people directly and 68 million indirectly. Powerloom sector employs almost 65 lakh people of which almost 40 per cent have bank accounts. Last week, the Government asked textile units to facilitate, on a “priority basis”, opening of bank accounts for their employees and make cashless payments through unified payments interface (UPI).
Since many are migrant workers without permanent address, the Government is seeking employers’ certification to open bank accounts subject to verification. Textiles Ministry has also held nearly 900 camps to help garment and textile workers open bank accounts and encourage UPI adoption.
