A group of alumni from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have proposed the building of a spinning mill as a source of future employment in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, which is one of the areas hardest hit by farmer suicides. More than 5,000 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra between 2005 and 2009, and an unknown number of others abandoned farming due to economic distress. The chronic misuse of agricultural chemicals is also thought to be a cause of the spate of suicides.
There currently are no cotton spinning mills in the Yavatmal area, so IIT hopes that the opening of a local factory will provide immediate employment opportunities, in addition to eventually creating ancillary businesses to support it.
The initiative is part of the IIT rural outreach program entitled “Reach Out for India.” There are more than 200,000 members in the alumni group, which hopes that its proposal to start a “mini-mill”–which would cost far less money than the typical, full-size facility–will make the proposal more likely to reach fruition.
(Story found in original format here.)