YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy urges centre to announce a special package for the handloom sector

YSRCP Rajya Sabha member Vijayasai Reddy has appealed to the central government to immediately announce special financial assistance to the handloom sector. He raised the issue through a special address in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. "About 31 lakh families in the country are earning their livelihood through the handloom sector with eighty-seven percent of households dependent on the handloom sector is in rural areas including 72% of those working in this field are women," Vijayasai Reddy said adding that 68 percent of the handloom workers are from backward castes, SCs and STs.

Vijayasai Reddy has said that the handloom sector has been hit hard by the corona epidemic and demand for handloom textiles has dropped. Vijayasai Reddy explained that the handloom workers who could have no work had reached a state of helplessness where they could not support their families.

He said there were two main reasons why the handloom sector was mired in a financial crisis. First, between March 2020 and January 2022, cotton and silk yarn prices rose by 69 percent and the handloom sector has reached financially unaffordable as the yarn was not available at affordable prices. Vijayasai Reddy said the government has not provided any social security benefits to the handloom workers belonging to the poor and downtrodden during the two years that the corona epidemic has ravaged the country.

"Under these circumstances, there is an urgent need for special financial assistance for the revival of the handloom sector; therefore, the government should announce a package of Rs 25,000 crore specifically for the handloom industry in addition to subsidising raw materials like cotton and yarn," Vijayasai Reddy said. He appealed to the government to take steps to provide social security to handloom workers.