Weavers: India
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In brief
The Times of India, Aug 09 2015
Subodh Varma
There were about 4.3 mil lion persons belonging to weaver and allied workers households in the country in 2010, which was when the last census of handloom workers was done by the NCAER at the behest of the textile min istry. What is notable about this is that over 60% of these lived in the northeast. Assam is home to over 44% of India's weavers. Outside of the northeast West Bengal has the highest share at about 15%. Tamil Na du, where Modi made his Handloom Day pronounce ments, has about 7%. So poli cy initiatives may have a magnified effect on the northeastern states and West Bengal.
The 2010 handloom census paints a harrowing picture of the work and life of Indian weavers, once thought to be the best in the world. Average annual income of a handloom worker is a shocking Rs 36,498, or just over Rs 3,000 over month. On an average, about 30% of the weavers' household income is derived from handloom weaving.
For the rest they have to look elsewhere, mostly manual labour.
Their products may be excellent but 46%of the households reported that their average production per day is less than one meter of cloth per worker. Another 32% were producing between 1 and 2 meters per day.
Put the low earnings and low productivity together and you can see the economic abyss into which the great handloom industry has fallen despite years of support and marketing. They have lost out to power looms and to organized production.
Besides welfare measures and one time debt waivers, the single most effective as sistance that was being provided to weavers was a subsidy for yarn. The thinking was that if raw material costs are reduced, their profit margins will increase. But periodic hikes in yarn prices and nonavailability played havoc with this intervention.
The handloom census reports the complete dependence of weavers on the open market for buying yarn.Nearly 78% of weavers said they bought hank yarn in the open market, and 50% bought dyes and chemicals from the same source. Small wonder that they have been unable to compete in terms of costs.
The government's welfare and support measures over several years have been stuttering along, suffering from under-capitalisation and misplaced priorities.
Since 2012-13, there has been a decline in central government funding for the handloom industry , probably part of the general fiscal squeeze on welfare measures.
In fact last fiscal which was the NDA's first year, spending dipped to a low of Rs 282 crore as per revised estimates. This year's budget allocation of Rs 440 crore is almost two thirds of the last UPA budget allocation of Rs 618 crore in 2013-14. So, it is uncertain whether marketing can lift the hapless weavers of India.
