Save the dying profession, a weaver’s plea to govt

A 70-year-old handloom worker puts up a stall at NIRD RTP-Mela to draw the attention of government to the plight of weavers

While over 200 stalls at NIRD – Rural Technology Park Mela have been put up to promote and get orders for the products, the 70-year-old weaver, Ramakrishna from Koyalagudem in Nalgonda district, has participated in the Mela to draw the attention of the authorities concerned to the plight of the weaving community living in pathetic conditions. If there is no government intervention to address the weavers’ problems, then he and his coming generations have to ‘call it quits’ to the age-old traditional weaving profession, said poverty stricken, Ramakrishna. He says, “Even our combined efforts of my wife and I in weaving sarees and bed-sheets every day can hardly fetch us Rs 2,500 per month.” It takes nearly four days to weave a saree and a bed-sheet at a cost of Rs 780 and Rs 360 respectively.

These labour charges are paid by Koyalagudem Chenetha Sahakara Sangam for making cotton sarees and bed-sheets on handlooms. How can we survive on such pittance earnings? He questions. Rama Krishna’s wife is physically handicapped and has three children who have stuck to the family profession. And above all, being not covered under the Indiramma Housing Scheme he lives in a rented house. Blaming the policies of the government for the prevailing conditions of the weaving community, he said that under the Janata Scheme launched by former chief minister NT Rama Rao, APCO got massive orders. All the weavers had handful of work and that was the last time when everyone earned sufficiently. But now there are hardly any orders and the very survival of APCO is in question. Also, earlier, there were huge export orders for handloom products. But due to tax-related issues with the foreign countries, the export of cotton fabrics had to be stalled despite a huge demand from the foreign countries.

Here also, the government failed to address the tax-related issues, said the septuagenarian.The weaving community is trying their best to reinvent themselves and keep up with the latest trends; they have been weaving latest Punjabi, Kurtis etc, but without the government support it was impossible for the weaving community to sustain in this profession, bemoans Ramakrishna and hopes that the government either generates work to the community or devises a rehabilitation plan for them.