Rs 50 lakh Japanese grant for fashion design center for rural poor in Tirupur

Chennai:

Japan has offered a grant worth Rs 50 lakh to a non-governmental organization in Tamil Nadu to establish a fashion design training center and a hostel for poor rural girls in Tirupur district.

A contract worth $105,676 was signed between consul general of Japan Masanori Nakano and director of Rural Education and Environment Development Service, Innacimuthu Jayaseelan here on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, Nakano said two diploma courses related to fashion design as well as a non-formal tailoring training course will be provided in this center and will benefit 280 girls annually.

Interestingly, this is the 110^th grant assistance for Grassroots Projects (GGP), a financial assistance scheme of Japan’s Official Development Assistance to support the implementation of community development projects which directly benefit people at grassroots level.

Jayaseelan told reporters that the idea to start the fashion design center came after a survey of 50 companies was conducted in Erode and Tirupur in 2006. It was found out that there were 1,843 jobs available in fashion design.

He said the fashion design center will be ready by December 7, 2012 and will be useful in providing jobs to rural women. “Only girls above 15 will be enrolled in the course,” he said adding a minimal fee will be charged from the students. The courses are affiliated to Tamil nadu Open University and Indira Gandhi Open University.