Bengaluru: Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani on Tuesday said, to diversify the apparel sector, silk should become unisex fabric.

The notion that silk is meant only for women should change, the minister said at the launch of indigenous automatic reeling machine and inauguration of the Centre of Excellence for Training at the Central Silk Board here.

She said scientists, officials and marketing teams should sit together and find out new areas for better utilisation of silk. She said a meeting would be held in New Delhi in the third week of January 2017, to discuss the proposal to bring silk under the new textile policy.

Smriti made out a case for digitisating the silk sector. Digitisation would help track the availability of raw materials in the textile sector, benefiting people who work in an unorganised manner.

She felt that the digitisation would also eradicate middlemen. A mobile application E-Dhaga has been launched in Hindi, English and Urdu. The app will soon be launched in Kannada, Urdu, Bengali and Assamese, she said.

Smriti said that an outreach programme is required for those who produce cocoons, so that the government can provide them some support. She felt the need to create clusters of silk growers under the outreach programme and, reaching out to those areas where silk production is possible.

Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation D V Sadananda Gowda highlighted the plight of silk growers saying that the Karnataka government has not done enough to protect the interest of people in the silk industry. “Of the 14,000 metric tonnes of silk produced in the country, 9,000 metric tonnes is contributed by Karnataka alone. I request the chief minister to give more attention towards silk growers and weavers. More training programmes are required,” said Gowda.