Handloom weavers in doldrums

Anantapur: The handloom weavers in the district are demanding early establishment of 70 weavers’ clusters for promotion of handloom industry as people are opting for cheaper power loom products.

The handloom weavers feel that there is a deliberate attempt to kill the industry by promotion of power loom sarees in a bid to capture handloom market. Puttaparthi, Dharmavaram, Hindupur and Uravakonda are handloom pockets in the district.

The collapse of handloom industry is attributed to none in the sector wanted their children to continue the age-old profession fighting against all odds. Besides the master weavers and the common weavers are finding it extremely difficult to compete with power-loom weavers.

The major problems dogging the community is the challenge posed by power loom sector and the exploitation by the master weavers. The master weavers supply raw material to common weavers and pay a pittance to sarees made by hand-loom weavers.

On an average a handloom weaver weaves one saree a week and at the most five sarees a month, whereas a power loom weaver produces three sarees a day. Many master weavers are reportedly making sarees from power looms and selling them as branded handloom sarees as they are viewed as superior to power loom sarees.

Rama Rao, a weaver from Dharmavaram says that while the minimum cost of a handloom saree is Rs 5,000. There are saree designs that cost even Rs 1 lakh or so while a power loom saree is sold at just Rs 1,200.

He says that a section of master weavers, are duping customers by selling power loom sarees at handloom prices, thus adversely affecting the handloom market. The Handloom Weavers Act prohibits operation of power looms in Dharmavaram and within 50 km radius of the weavers’ town.
Obulakonda, another weaver says that 50 suicides of debt-ridden weavers had sounded the alarm bells and served as a warning for future generations against continuing the age-old profession.

He said the weavers are only asking the government to extend small incentives for the community. “The much-promised loan waiver has remained only on paper. Instead of making our town a smart one, they should make our lives smart,” he added. “So far about 25,000 weavers had migrated to other towns. The government must do something before our weavers’ colonies are reduced to ghost colonies,” adds another.

Hindupur MP Nimmala Kistappa demanded the chief minister to come to rescue of community and save their profession from extinction by training youngers in families in modern techniques of weaving.

He urged the chief minister to supply 100 units of power free of cost to weavers, creation of a revolving fund and provision of government guarantees to weavers’ bank loans. Among other demands include setting up of a weavers’ enforcement office in Dharmavaram, payment of Rs 2,000 maternity allowance to every pregnant women of weaver for 6 months and compensation to families of weavers who committed suicides and 13 members who died of heart ailments.

The families of deceased face a bleak future as the bread winners are no more to support them.Weavers United Front chairman KAN Moorthy stated that lack of inputs like finance for looms and raw materials and poor marketing facilities were forcing the weavers to give themselves up to master weavers, middlemen and wholesalers who unscrupulously exploiting them.

There are 1.40 lakh hand looms in the district and 2 lakh weavers are engaged in the work. He demanded Rs 1,000 crore be provided in the budget for weavers. There are 254 weavers’ cooperative societies with 26,725 members and of them, 170 societies were functioning well.

By Ravi P Benjamin