Anand Sharma Announces Comprehensive Package for Handloom Weavers

Government is actively seized with the concerned being faced by the handloom sector which employs 43 lakh weavers. In recent times, this sector has come under stress on account of high yarn prices and stiff competition from power loom and mill sector.

Apart from this, access to credit is not easily forthcoming. The bulk of handloom industry weavers are from UP, West Bengal, Orissa, North East and Southern belt, large number of which belong to the minority community and women. A focused attention to this sector is, therefore an imperative from the stand point of our ‘inclusive growth’ agenda.

Loan waiver for handloom weavers

On assuming charge of the Ministry of Textiles, Shri Anand Sharma had taken a comprehensive review of this sector. In the Budget 2011-12, the Government had announced a loan waiver package of Rs. 3,000 crores, which was expected to benefit 15,000 handloom weavers cooperative societies and 3 lakh handloom weavers, who had been unable to repay their loan on account of economic difficulties. However, a large number of weavers of U.P. who operate on an individual basis and are not organised in the cooperative sector, were left out of its ambit.

A meeting of Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) was held yesterday and a decision of covering individual weavers also, a large number of whom are from UP, will be sent for consideration of the Cabinet.

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Implementation of Handloom Cluster & Role of WSC

Govt. of India, Development Commissioner for Handloom, New Delhi has sanctioned 419 Handloom clusters. Among that 9 handloom clusters in Gujarat State has been sanctioned during the 2008-09 to the Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad. Rest was allotted to Gujarat State Handloom & Handicraft Corporation,Gandhinagar; namely Junagarh, Amreli, Porbandar, Surendranagar, Limbdi, Palanpur, Vadgam (Banaskantha), and Bhuj.

Ahmedabad cluster (Amraivadi, Geetamandir) has been sanctioned to Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad to cover up 490 Handloom Weavers under various components.Under this project, Weavers Service Centre, Ahmedabad has undertaken the work to uplift the weavers of the Amraiwadi and Gitamandir and given benefit to the 218 weavers under various components.

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A company by the weavers, for the weavers and of the weavers

Kishen Lal is a happy man today. Toiling on his looms for years, he had never dreamt that one day he would be owner (shareholder) of a company. There are 249 weavers like him in Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh who are now proud shareholders in a private limited company formed by them. For them, July 30, 2010 will always be a day of reckoning as they received their first dividend certificates at a function held here on Friday.

This company is a result of Union government's effort to revive the handloom sector. With Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad, as the implementing agency, ministry of textiles launched four-year Integrated Handlooms Cluster Development Scheme in Chanderi in 2006 to help handloom weavers meet the challenges of globalised environment.

Chanderi Handlooms Cluster Development Producers' Company Limited was registered initially with 10 members on May 29, 2008. Today, the firm has 249 shareholders (237 weavers and 12 weaver SHGs).

"It's a story of empowering weavers at grassroots level. Weavers were first organised in self-help groups (SHGs) and given exposure to exhibitions and sales to help them understand the production-to-marketing cycle. They realised that pooling of resources of SHGs is more fruitful than going solo with similar designs and limited means," says Tarun Bedi, faculty (EDI) & CDE, Chanderi/Gwalior.

"Weavers had their doubts though about availability of working capital, wage sustainability, availability of reliable market linkages, potential for conflicts in the distribution of profit and in their own capacity," says Mangilal, a weaver and in-charge of production planning, monitoring and quality control. To allay their fears, weavers were taken to Bunkar Vikas Sanstha to see how a federation worked.

"When the project was initiated, nobody was ready to accept that designs can be simplified and newer patterns can be introduced. Two months of training and a visit to an exhibition later, they began to create new designs as per the market requirements," says Sanjay Garg, a designer from NIFT, Delhi, whose services have been hired for design development and forming linkages with buyers.

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Genuine Kancheepuram sarees face stiff competition

The Kancheepuram silk saree, churned out by the Department of Handlooms and Textiles in Tamil Nadu is witnessing a demand fall of sorts, never seen before, mainly due to competition from the private sector.

The department has organised a sale in the capital of Tamil Nadu; Chennai, where it is giving discounts as high as 45 percent, in a bid to clear the high inventory levels and to maintain flow of working capital.

The main reason for this condition is that the private sector weavers and traders use artificial silk zari sarees and pass off the sarees as pure Kancheepuram silk sarees, which the government agency is unable to do.

These private sector players are able to sell these counterfeit silk sarees at a rate which is far lower than the prices quoted at the stores run by the department, since the cost of a genuine silk saree vastly exceeds the prices of sarees made from art silk.

Experts, whom fibre2fashion spoke to, are of the opinion that the department should initiate a consumer awareness campaign to educate the customer, to know the difference between an art silk and genuine silk Kancheepuram saree.

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Bargarh Handloom Cluster - A caption for every motif or design

Bargarh Handloom cluster is spread over the entire Block of Bargarh, Attabira, Bijepur and Sohella. The cluster has 7158 numbers of looms as per the survey report of the zonal Handloom office taken up during the year 2004 out of which 5102 looms are working in 299 different villages.

The main products of the cluster are cotton sarees of tie and dye and small amount of dress materials, lungis and napkins etc. The annual production is around 10 Crores rupees. The products of this area are mostly marketed in Orissa and National market. The cluster so to say represents Orissa in quantitative and qualitative Tie and Dye Cotton Sarees as no other clusters of other districts in Orissa produces such sarees.

Bargarh is one of the major revenue generating district, situated in western part of Orissa. It is 380 Kms far from state capital, Bhubaneswar and around 50 Kms far from Sambalpur Town. The town is well connected with road and railways. it is on the Road side of National Highway number 5 (Mumbai - Kolkata). The nearest Air port is Raipur, state capital of Chhatisgarh.

The weaving in the cluster by the traditional weavers’ community popularly known as "Bhulia" came in to existence during mid of 17th century and with increase in their population, they spread to other nearby places. They initially belong to Rajasthan and were presented during the 14th century to the ruler of Patna State, a king of Chouhan dynasty "Ramai Deb". Later on they were presented to the king of Sonepur during the 16th century and scattered to the nearby district i.e., Bargarh in the next century.

The cluster consists sizable number of professional weavers (Non traditional) from Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (Kuli caste) weavers, which in total accounts for 60 %. Generally these weavers are less skilled and engaged in production of Napkin, Lungi, Sarees, Dhotis, etc.

Weaving with Tie dye in the cluster prior to 40”s was done with 40''/42'' looms operated with hanging slay and engaged in producing Kapta, Lungi and Napkins made of 12's/16's/20's cotton yarn. The yarns were dyed with vegetable colours. The main colours were Yellow (from Turmeric), Maroon (From bark of Aal tree), Blue form Nile and Black (From Hirakasi and Chakda Seeds).

Fabrics of vegetable colours were sometimes not fast and ranges of colours were also limited, forcing the Tie-Dye production in to limited colours and so also the design. Such practice was on vogue till the mid of 40s when vat colour was first substituted for in place of some vegetable colours.

The next major changes in the cluster took place with the introduction of twisted cotton mercerized yarn and synthetic colours in the early 60's. The looms started widening mainly to 52" width for normal sarees and other production and 90" for double bed sheet production. There were also few 60'' / 72" looms to accommodate weaving of middle-sized bed sheets.

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Burdwan keeps Mughal era handloom tradition alive

'Jamdani' and 'Tangail' are two pioneer sarees in the field of heritage handloom products of Bengal handloom and Burdwan handloom cluster in particular.

'Jamdani' - the great characteristic of fine art in hand weaving derived from a Persian word 'Jam' meaning a 'cup' and 'Dani' denotes the 'container'. Jamdani style of weaving flourished under the benign, rich and enlightened patronage of kings and emperors.

It may be considered as a textile of excellence for its super fine qualities in the fifteenth & sixteenth centuries. Excellence in weaving lies in the virtuosity of forms drawn from the social, religious and natural environment and translated through a particular technique and the weaver's sensitivity to create a new art form.

The figured muslin with delicate motifs worked on by deft fingers, needed besides skill, unlimited patience, a length of cloth sometimes taking months to weave.

The "Mughals" recognized this excellence, acknowledged its rarity. During the region of Emperor Jahangir and Aurangzeb, the manufacturer of finer Jamdani was a rare product and a royal monopoly. After the Mughalera, Jamdanis continued to be developed under the patronage of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Tanda and Nawab of Dhaka (Bangladesh).

The weavers of Dhaka were expert in Jamdani known as 'Daccai Jamdani' for producing mainly sarees and dress materials. While the weavers of "Tanda" and "Varanasi" in Awadh were experts in weaving of 'Awadh Jamdani' for producing mainly sarees, dress materials, handkerchiefs, Ornas, caps, table cover etc.

Both "Dacca" & "Tanda" Jamdanis, the ground warp and weft threads are commonly of fine nature grey cotton yarn of counts, ranging from 60s to 150s. However, mulberry silk (13/15 Den filature) yarn were also used. The warp yarn used for selvedge at normally 1/4th width are either grey or bleached cotton in both the styles.

In case of indigo dyed Nilambari Jamdani sarees of Bengal, the selvedge yarn dyed with madder colour is beautifully matched. Bleached cotton, indigo and black dyed cotton, silver and gold zari, munga threads are used as extra weft for figured motif in Dacca whereas, bleached cotton and gold zari are in vogue in "Tanda" as extra weft. The small cut piece of 3-5 ply of these extra yarns are used for the desired effect of each motif using the same count as that of warp yarn.

8' x 8' pit looms were generally used for producing figured Jamdani. Like other sarees, hank sizing is largely followed for Jamdani from hank form yarn available in market.

The motion of layout of Jamdani fabrics are directly woven on loom by traditional master weavers from their hereditary skill, experience and talent. Traditional Jamdani motifs are geometric in concept, adopted from local flowers, birds, leaves, zig-zag lines, and so on by the weavers who improved and evolved a directory of design of "Dacca Gharana" These designs have its nomenclature in Hazar-buti, Chand, Tara-buti, Dora-kata' Dabutar- khop, Rose-leaf etc.

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Chirala handloom fabrics famous since times immemorial

Chirala Handloom Cluster (Chira means saree) was formerly known as "Ksirapuri" meaning (Sea like a Milk) is situated on the Bay of Bengal. Chirala town is well connected to the main railway line and NH 5 road line (Kokatta to Chennai). There is also an airline service from Vijayawada, which is just 110 km away.

The Chirala handloom Cluster is famous since times immemorial for producing variety of fabrics which brought name and fame to the nation as well as to this area. Even before the industrial revolution took place in the west, the rural artisan weavers of this area had done marvelous work of producing 7 yards of saree, which could be fit in a match box, which speaks of highest excellence in the art of weaving, unmatched skill and talent of the handloom cluster weavers.

During the 13th century, the Italian traveler Marcopolo had visited this area and he mentions about handloom weaving and exhibition of skills of the weavers in production of finer varieties and also reveals the historic evidence about attaining the peak of excellence in weaving skills.

In 1920 a group of weavers formed a Handloom Weavers Co-Operative Society. During 1952 a co-operative spinning mill was inaugurated by Sri Jhawarlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of independent India. This area is famous for its production of traditional varieties of zari sarees and dhoties which has sales limited to the local market.

In 1973, began the production of "Real Madras Hand Kerchiefs" manufactured with artsilk and zari (metallic thread glittering like gold) on jacquard looms and was exported to African countries. The introduction of this exportable variety and its popularity in the weavers of this area had not only improved the living conditions of the weaver but also contributed to earning foreign exchange for the nation.

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Insight of Gadag Handloom Cluster

Majority of the Handlooms in the Cluster are working under the patronage of the KHDC. The Handloom weavers who work for KHDC produce furnishing, Terry towels, Bed sheets, Suiting, Shirting, floor coverings, tablemats ,Cut shuttle durries, etc. The remaining weavers in the Cluster limit themselves in producing silk, silk mix and cotton traditional saree, almost all the weavers in the cluster are depending on job work. The weavers working under KHDC get raw materials from KHDC and they surrender their woven fabrics to the KHDC, The weavers who get the raw materials from cooperative societies produces for respective cooperative societies, the weavers under the master weavers to their master weavers, the weavers of khadi board to their respective khadi board. These weavers are paid the conversion charges on piece rate basis. Only the tiny weavers do their business on their own.

The KHDC and Khadi Board market their products through the chain of its sales outlets, and directly to different government institutions. The cooperatives and the small manufacturer weavers supply their goods to local retailers and wholesalers. The tiny weavers are selling their products in the local market directly to the consumer or to the local trader.

It has been observed in the value chain analysis that the local traders enjoy greater margin than the others. But proper intervention for cost reduction in inputs through bulk purchase helps to improve pre-processing methods. Upgrading the designs for value addition of the product, introduction of direct selling mechanism instead of the trader will help increase in the earning of the weavers and the margins of the entrepreneurs.

The linkages of the core actors with most of the public service providers are very weak. With the exception of the weaver service centre and the Handloom and textiles Department linkages with other service providers have to be strengthened.

Since all the support institutions are existing in the cluster there is large scope for intervention in all the major areas such as design development, value addition to product, up gradation of technique, product diversification, establishment of CFC, Common marketing facility, Brand Equity etc.

Gadag Handloom Cluster

Gagad Handloom cluster is a famous cotton trading centre for Jayadhar variety of cotton. It has occupied 70kms surrounding area of Gadag.

History of the Gadag Cluster shows the rise and fall of its products. Even the products manufactured have been changed from ordinary cotton saris to mercerized cotton saris and high quality of silk saris. Today more than 50% of the production is only of the cotton saris. Though the profit margin is meager in cotton saris but enjoys better demand compared to silk saris. These "Gaadi dhadi" traditional saris are largely worn by women of north Karnataka and some parts of Maharashtra. These people prefer these saris for almost all their cultural and traditional functions because of its combination of harmonious colors, quality and richness.

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