Handloom industry in Silk City cries for renovation

Source: The Hindu

Berhampur is famous for its intricately designed silk sarees and handloom clothes across the country for which it is popularly known as the Silk City, but the handloom industry in the city is in dying condition due to lack of proper vision on the part of the Government to save the age-old cottage industry and heritage of the State. Civil society members of the city have expressed grave concern over Government apathy towards the poor weavers who are passing through the worst period in their vocation. Since long they are after the Government for development of the handloom industry but to no effect. A civil society member and former Deputy Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly Rama Chandra Panda has written a letter to the President of India citing the problems of the weavers of the city as well as of the entire Ganjam district. In the letter, Panda said the city has immense potential in the cottage industry which should be saved by extending necessary support. “Of late, due to cost burdens and non-paying labour, the industry is in dying stage which needs an overall review of the functioning of the cottage industry in the district,” Panda said, adding, “To motivate the skilled artisans to continue in the vocation for uplift in the local economy and generation of employment, the looms should be modernized while providing continuous technical support for aftercare.”

The traditional class of weavers in the Silk City is known as ‘Dera community’ comprising about a thousand families mostly residing in Ganesh Nagar, Balmikipeta, Chandrama Street in the city. There are also large numbers of people of the weavers, community residing in different parts of the district and engaged in spinning and weaving activities since time immemorial. Few such villages are Kumbharipada, Pailipada, Pitala, Padmanabhapur, Nuapada, Nuapenth, Kullad, Beguniapada, Kanteikoli, Kanchuru, Makarjhola, Hinjilikatu and Potlampur. The weavers of the city in particular are producing both elegant cotton and silk sarees through traditional weaving by indigenous looms. In course of time some of these families in order to coordinate their activities organised themselves into registered and unregistered societies or groups under the initiative of the Textile and Handloom Department of the State Government.

However, at present three such successful registered societies, each having 30 members, are functional and they are reportedly performing well. The societies are supplying silk at 10 per cent margin to the weavers and purchasing finished goods from them, selling the products through society outlets at 10 per cent margin to the public to encourage sale. Besides the 100 weaver families covered by three societies, there are reportedly 300 other individual weaving families who are engaged in spinning, weaving, dying and manufacturing both cotton and silk clothes, sarees and various other types of clothing materials carrying high legacy. The margin given by the Societies are being reimbursed by the Government. In recent past, the Government sources supplied 30 interlocking slay looms and trained the artisans to add skill potential, of which at present 10 such modernised looms are working while 20 such looms are closed reportedly due to lack of skill assistance and aftercare service. Lack of sustainable infrastructure discourages the artisans to resort to modern means, Panda wrote. He said it is understood that local textile authorities have proposed to install a CAD unit along with Transfer Technology Facility Centre at Brahmapur by establishing Training-cum-Production Centre for Weavers to facilitate skill upgradation, providing aftercare service, model weaving and designing which eventually would wipe out the difficulties as narrated above. This proposal being in the pipeline needs to be implemented at the earliest, demanded Panda.

Panda further demanded allocation of Government land to establish Residence-cum-Weaving Centres and commuaity centres to promote skill development as most of the weavers have no homestead land to establish looms for their rehabilitation and development. By this, spinning and weaving would become fulltime vocation in which a large number of women can be engaged to achieve self empowerment, he added. He also demanded that the skilled artisans after attaining 60 years should be covered under old age pension, ESI insurance and other facilities. Government of India should formulate a model policy for uniform application of such welfare measures and the weavers need to be covered under Thrift Fund Deposit scheme by providing matching grant in order to cover the statutory welfare schemes to make the vocation fulltime and secure, he suggested. “These measures may help empowering hundreds of spinners, weavers and connected artisans both in the city and in its periphery, thereby strengthening sustainable opportunity for  economic growth as mandated in the Directive Principles of State Policy in our Constitution,” Panda concluded.

Source: The Pioneer