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With commercial banks adopting the decision for providing credit cards to farmers, government-run Allahabad Bank has also chosen to follow their footsteps.
"The idea behind the move is to save weavers from perennial exploitation by moneylenders", told the Allahabad Bank assistant general manager P.C. Gananayak, while launching the schmee for the silk weavers of Varanasi on Sunday.
The first stage of the scheme, which will be made available to 200 weavers, will be deployed in the Varanasi, Azamgarh, Mirzapur, Chandauli and Sant Kabir Nagar districts.
This follows the identification of Varanasi silk weavers' skills as "intellectual property" under the Geographical Indication Act .
"All that the weavers were required to do to avail of the facility was to furnish their artisan licence issued by the handloom and handicrafts department," Gananayak told.
He mentioned that the scheme will be extended to other artisans also in due course.
Social workers have appreciated the bank's initiative.
"The scheme will definitely provide financial strength to weavers, who often end up getting exploited by moneylenders on whom they become dependent for their raw material needs", said Rajni Kant, general secretary of Human Welfare Organisation, a Ngo which works towards the economic uplift of the region's silk weavers.
