Handloom industry: Revival needs sincere efforts

 And quite passed On August 7, National Handloom Day commemorates one of the most important sectors of our economic life. The media ignored it largely. Even the economic dailies paid little attention to it. However, the Prime Minister is aware of the importance of the handloom weaving community. Addressing the 9th National Handloom Day, the PM said that India’s vibrant handlooms exemplify the country’s diversity and expressed the government’s urge to give wings to the aspirations of the children of those associated with handlooms and handicrafts. However, sincere efforts are now necessary to revive the handloom industry, one of the largest employment providers in rural India. Only multidimensional efforts can save this sector from gradual destruction.

Let us consider the ground reality. The Fourth All India Handloom Census avers that the total number of households in India engaged in handloom activities (weaving and allied activities) is 31.45 lakh. This is an increase over the Third census, where the count was 27.83 lakh”.

This is certainly encouraging, but it also gives a hint to an uncomfortable tale. The handloom census report is a government publication, and remaining true to the actual duty of any government, it did not try to hide the sad side of the story. Thus, we know from the report that the majority of the weaver households—a staggering 66.3 percent—earn less than 5,000 rupees per month. Now consider how many members a household can have. By any conservative estimate, it is not less than four. Can they make both ends meet with a meagre 5,000 rupees?

If we keep it in mind, then the jump in the number of weavers’ households seems baffling. How can one account for a scenario where more and more people are joining a trade that offers just starvation wages? But we have no reason to disbelieve the census figures. It had covered more than 25 lakh weaver households for enumeration. There are more than 35 lakh handloom workers in the country.

Explaining the conundrum is not difficult, and it provides food for thought for economic policymakers in the country. Most of the handloom workers—88 percent—are in rural India, and there is a migration from agriculture and its allied sectors to handloom weaving. There are many other built-in ills. The largest concentration of weavers—nearly 18 lakh—is in four states: Assam, West Bengal, Manipur, and Tamil Nadu. But unfortunately, they do not figure in the list of those states where the average number of person-days of engagement is high. On the coveted list of high-person days of engagement are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, and Puducherry, where the concentration of weavers is much lower.

The Indian textile and apparel market size reached USD 172.3 billion last year. It is expected that within five years, the market may reach USD 387 billion in size. Private investment in the textile sector picked up in the last fiscal year, although the export market is still showing sluggish trends due to the aftereffects of the pandemic throughout the world.

But to what extent does the handloom sector share the growth in the textile industry? Being the largest cottage industry sector in the Indian economy, it should be protected from powerlooms and enjoy product variety. The Indian handloom sector produces several traditional products such as sarees, kurtas, shawls, fashion accessories, bedspreads, kitchen linen, decorative furnishings, etc. Handloom products have major export markets. In 2020–21, mats and matting exported from the country had a share of 29 percent in total exports. Together with rugs and carpets, they form the major items that are in great demand in several countries. Another item that is in great demand all over the world is Indian silk scarves.

True, there are a plethora of government schemes for upgradation and sustenance of the handloom industry, but some of them have conceptual limitations or suffer at the implementation level. Monthly incomes of handloom weavers do not increase, even if total production of handloom clothes shows upward trends. It denotes the vice-like grip of middlemen and money lenders in the production system. With an abysmally low education level, a lion’s share of the weavers do not know about various government programmes for their welfare, nor do they enjoy banking services. The last census informs us that out of the total number of weavers enumerated, only 23.3 percent had bank accounts and that “banking penetration is higher among weavers living in urban areas (41.8%) than those living in rural areas (only 20.8%).” As the handloom industry is predominantly a rural chapter of our economy, a lack of institutional credit availability is pushing the weaver households into the clutches of money lenders, inflicting a deep cut in their real wages.

Still, as mentioned earlier, Indian handloom products enjoy a good export market, with the United States being the biggest importer. Apart from the US, the UK, Italy, Germany, the EU, Canada, Brazil, Denmark, etc. also import substantial amounts of Indian handloom products.

But here also lies a catch. The majority of India’s handloom exports consist mostly of mats, carpets, rugs, and silk scarves. Wide-ranging product and design variations are necessary. Exports are on a downward trend. According to data from the Handloom Export Promotion Council in 2016–17, the value of India’s handloom exports stood at 357.2 million dollars. Since then, it has shown continuous decline, reaching a harrowing low of 222.7 million dollars in 2020–21. In 2021–22, it again registered an increase of 266.9 million dollars. True, the pandemic contributed to the 20-21 low figure. But it cannot be denied that the downward trend has taken a continuous line.

So the profession has lost its attraction among the younger generation of weaver families. The census mentions that only 9.4 percent of the younger generation members within the range of 14–18 years now want to join the handloom weaving profession as allied workers.