Free dhoti and saree scheme for Pongal
· Chennai
The state began distributing free saris and dhotis to poor families for Pongal, a scheme that also provides work to handloom and power loom weavers.
The free sari and dhoti scheme was launched in 1983 during M. G. Ramachandran's tenure as Chief Minister. Under it, poor families in rural and urban areas receive a sari and a dhoti each year before the Pongal festival. The cloth is woven by handloom, pedal loom and power loom weavers' cooperatives, so the scheme also provides employment to weavers. Later governments of both Dravidian parties continued it, and by the 2010s it reached over three crore people.
