A daylong awareness camp was organized bythe Handloom Department under the supervision of Assistant Director Handloom, here today.The Assistant Director Handicrafts, Representatives of JK Bank, trainees of various weaving training centres established by Handloom Department and other concerned attended the camp.During the camp, it was informed that as per 3rd Handloom Census Data 2009-10 there are 33209 weavers and allied workers in J&K are engaged with this sector.It was further informed that the handloom sector plays an important role in employment generation, cloth production and value addition besides preserving the rich cultural heritage. The sector provides direct and indirect employment to more than 65 lakh weavers and allied workers mostly from weaker sections of the population. Speaking on the occasion, the AD Handloom said that the Handloom Development has various schemes at its disposal for upgradation of skill and financial status of the weavers of the district. Block Level Cluster Approach is one of the best schemes having scope of covering 200-500 skilled people together with minimum funding of Rs.2 crore from Government.He also informed that the departments is running 9 Handloom Weaving Training Centres and aKani Shawl Weaving Training Centre in the district where 106 female candidates are being trained by experts.