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Saturday, 10 March 2012

Looming Disaster .

Reading  a recent story in the magazine made me think of something that i never usually paid attention to . So  i  thought it is my responsibility being a citizen of the country to make people aware about the problems that people are facing now and help them in any little way i can .
You would be amazed to see the actual condition of the hand loom workers in India . Prior to this , i knew that the hand loom workers face a lot of problems but the statistics that have showed up are very shocking and have caught up my attention . And i really feel disappointed but also optimistic that surely things will change soon .
So , about 88 % of the weaver households in the state of Andhra Pradesh have BPL cards , 42 % of the workers have never attended school , and the state records the highest level of indebtedness among hand loom households . The monthly income of some of the weavers is just 1,000 rupees . The hand loom census of India 2009 - 10  , show that the average earning of rural and urban households dependent on weaving and allied activities in Andhra Pradesh , Orissa , is about 28,000 a year or just Rs .75 per day . Hunger and malnutrition stalk them as they struggle to keep body and soul together .
India is almost home to 1.77 lakh households involved in weaving and allied activities . They constitute a significant 12 % of about 15 lakh households involved in commercial hand loom work across the country .
Some experts argue that the hand loom industry would have come to an end but it has survived because the master weavers , who raise the investment , respond to changes in market conditions . Nevertheless , weavers are paid extremely low wages .
So , after studying the situation , i have concluded some of the factors which are responsible for this situation .
The disastrous government policies favouring mills and power looms , has pushed weavers into considerations of destitution , malnutrition and starvation .
Crushed under mountain debts , some weavers take their own lives . Also , while i was doing case study about the topic , the problems the weavers face and its causes , i came across something that really shook me .
In reply to a question in the legislative council in February 2011 , P. Shankar Rao , who was then the Textile Minister for Andhra Pradesh , said that 441 weavers had committed suicide in the state in the past six years .

Government policies regarding the hand loom sector have been marked by discrimination and callous neglect  favouring mills and power looms while paying lip service to hand looms. From the very outset , independent India hurtled along a path of industrialization  which went hand in hand with the centralization of the economy.
The potential of Khadi - handspun and handwoven cloth which occupied a place of pre - eminence in Gandhi's vision for reviving the village economy , was killed in independent India by its goovernments unable to deny the significance of Khadi in India's struggle for freedom , governments accorded a marginal level of protection to khadi and hand loom . However , without any genuine commitment , this grudging gesture towards Khadi and hand loom was easily eroded .
Globalization and liberalization worsened the plight of weavers . The export oriented textile policy of 2000 , based on the report of the Satyam Committee , liberalized controls and regulates at the cost of the hand loom sector . This policy , which aims to make India , a global player in textile markets , not only ignores the minimal needs of weavers but also discriminates against them .
Largely unaware of these policy machinations , weaver households doggedly eke out a living in the face of tremendous odds . Such hardships forces weavers to abandon the loom for more remunerative work . Given that the overall population is growing is indicative of a deep crisis in the hand loom sector .
With low wages and returns over the years , hand loom weavers have become heavily indebted and highly vulnerable to the slightest change in raw material prices , especially those of cotton yarn . They don't have cash resources , adequate buffers or price accomodating mechanisms to respond to a rise in yarn prices .
Despite repeated protests by weavers , yarn exports continue to hike up prices and jeopardise their livelihoods . Additionally , falling budget allocations , poor infrastructure and lack of access to markets and investment make their lives vulnerable .
Crafting a development paradign to meet their basic needs requires political and social will . Perhaps , to begin with , we must realize that behind the beauty of every hand loom saree lurks the plight of a weaver who has been denied the justice he or she deserves .

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