There is a severe countrywide crisis in the Handloom sector. This sector is next only to agriculture as a source of livelihood for the people of India. Fourty lakh people, who depend directly or indirectly on this sector, face an uncertain future, and around six lakh families face starvation. Those who traditionally depend upon weaving are now in search of an alternate livelihood and are moving towards the cities. Tragically, earlier the trend was that those who lost employment in the cities used to come back to settle into their traditional occupation of weaving. Now ‘New’ Economic Policies are destroying both the options. As a result, in many places, the hapless weavers are resorting to suicides.

Govt. Policies are Finishing off Traditional Occupations

Article 43 of the Constitution of India underlines the necessity of extending support to those rural masses who depend upon their traditional livelihoods. But the present Govts., both at the Centre and in the states, are intentionally ignoring such sections. The subsequent impoverishment of these people is taking its toll, especially in terms of human lives and also loss of a heritage. In Andhra Pradesh alone, 40 weavers at Sircilla in Karimnagar District, 12 weavers in Guntur District and 19 weavers in Medak District committed suicide when unable to repay their huge debts. The prevailing economic and social crisis due to Govt. policies is responsible for these suicides.

Govts. have discarded all responsibilities towards the people. They are advocating the way of ‘New’ Economic Policies as the only way for the country’s prosperity! On the other hand, they feign helplessness when faced with the effects of these policies. In totality, peasants and weavers are being driven to suicides to salvage their self-respect in the face of unrepayable debts.

Previously Prosperous Sectors in Tragic State

Upto the beginning of the 19th century, the weaving community was prosperous, with demands for exports high, and also a good capacity to export. Our handlooms were famous and, for instance, there was demand for our handloom products even in Egyptian countries. After the advent of the British, this sector was systematically attacked to pave the way for British textiles. They announced that all handloom products could be sold only to them. To develop the textile industry of Manchester, all raw cotton of Bombay was exported there. It was primarily in order to facilitate this movement that the British developed port and railway facilities in India. Powerloom textile products from England were sold without import taxes in India, thus attacking the market for indigenous handlooms. After 1947, the Indian Govts. too followed similar policies. All this has contributed to the continually deteriorating status of this sector.

Unbridled cotton export resulted in scarcity of essential raw materials. Slowly weavers began discarding their traditional occupation. Eventually, the handloom products became so costly that they could only be bought by the elites.

After the implementation of ‘New’ Economic Policies from the 1990s, rulers of India have openly discarded all social responsibilities as per WTO diktats, while they toed the line of imperialist institutions (like WTO and also IMF, WB). The weaving community was one of the victims, resulting in the present situation. Moreover, to extend their support to the ‘big bosses’ of the Textile Industry, the Govt. has brought New Textile Policy 2000 which rings the deathknell for the handloom sector. Further, the Govts. are introducing powerlooms in the name of modernization. Labour departments too, which are supposed to look after the welfare of these traditional workers, have turned a blind eye to their travails. The clearly mentioned restriction in the New Textile Policy, that powerlooms are not to produce more than 50% cottons, have remained restricted to paper only. On the other hand, neither Central nor state Govts. are providing necessary fund allocations to the Handloom sector in their Budgets. Worse even, allocated funds have been utilized improperly. Coupled with this are other irrational policies. In the recent Budget, the Govt. has reduced the custom duty on import of powerlooms. If powerlooms start functioning in consonance with all these facilities, Handloom sector will become part of archives. All the familiar, world famous and well loved handlooms like Gadwal, Kanchipuram, Dharmavaram, Mangalori and Pochampally sarees (which anyway have now become accessible only to a few) will all be reduced to memories of bygone days. The Central Govt. had sponsored a ‘Deen Dayal Protsahan Mahajan’ but due to lack of matching grants from state govts. (as in AP) or other excuses, it has not made any headway. What the govts. are actually doing is to indulge in phrasemongering about protecting this sector, while allowing it to die away.

AP State Govt., a Spectator to Suicides

Though tens of weavers are simply ending their lives, the Naidu Govt. appears a mere mute spectator. But actually, it is the culprit. It has stopped payment of dues to AP Cooperatives (APCo) for the past three years. It has also stopped purchases over the same period. In the previous decade, APCo had a turnover of more than Rs. 110 crores; from January to April this year, its turnover was only Rs. 10 crores. These figures still show how prosperous this sector can be. But the AP Govt. has closed 9 Divisional Marketing Centres out of a total of 18 (i.e. half). 200 sale centres and offices of Divisional Managers were closed. Govt. is preparing to announce the sale of cooperative cotton mills. In the recent State Budget, allocation for powerloom service centres was one crore rupees, while 2½ lakh rupees have been allocated for Handloom and Textile Department. When, in this context, the Govt. announced that it will ‘protect’ the 6 lakh families of handloom weavers, who can believe it?

Finally, the AP State Govt. has accepted all the WTO diktats and will completely open the state to imported textiles by the year 2005. This will sweep away any living vestiges of our Handloom sector.

Handloom sector weavers must realize that suicides are no solution to their problems, but struggle is. With the support and solidarity of other working sections they must fight back the attack of the Govts. and their anti-worker policies.

Report of Fact finding Committee on Karimnagar Suicides

A fact-finding team comprising of Vimala, Jaya S., Prof. K. R. Chowdhary, Advocate Sudhakar Reddy and Com. J. V. Chalapati Rao visited the area on 5th April 2001 to study the reasons behind the spate of suicides at Sircilla (Karimnagar). They visited the families of weavers, owners of powerlooms, and workers related to Handloom sector.

The team recorded that there were not more than 200 handlooms in this place, while the powerlooms were around 10,000. 50 thousand people depended on these (taken jointly). There were 200 master weavers or contractors. All workers are on daily wages. There are around 270 ‘sizing’ units, where every worker puts in 15 hours work per day for a daily wage of Rs. 90. The nature of this work is somewhat hazardous as it is related to chemical processes. Thus workers do not manage to work more than 10 years in Dyeing processes.

Powerloom weaving is paid at Rs. 1.20 per metre woven cloth – of this the workers gets fifty paise and the remaining goes to the loom owner. If the worker works on four powerlooms for 12 hours only then can he earn a daily wage of Rs. 50. Even this is possible only is power supply is uninterrupted. Govt. supplies power only for eight hours a day, while power expenses have doubled with the power hike.

Secondly, excise duty to the tune of Rs. 65 to Rs. 70 per 5 Kg. was imposed on cotton. It means that per lorry load, around Rs. 75,000 is being paid as excise duty. This town uses 600 lorry loads, so that 4.5 crore rupees have been paid as excise duty. Cost of colours and chemicals have also gone up by 20% to 25%. There is no finance facility for the weavers. So ultimately, to meet these heightened expenses, weavers have gone to moneylenders, getting loans at high interest rates. This has become  a vicious cycle and they are unable to extricate themselves from the clutches of these moneylenders.

While AP Govt. had procured cloth through APCo but no payment have been made by the Govt. since the past two years. Govt.’s dues have reached Rs. 34 crores. Resultantly 500 powerlooms have shut down, ruining 65% of Sircilla town, who were directly or indirectly dependent on this sector. Additionally, due to the shift from handlooms to powerlooms, thousands of women were thrown out of jobs. They have ultimately become beedi workers. In practice, due to the crisis in the weaving industry, entire families have become dependent on beedi work, for which they earn a maximum of Rs. 500 per month!

The committee had demanded that Govt. provide alternate livelihood, take steps to clear the debts of the loom workers, pay an exgratia of Rs. one lakh rupees to the families of those who have committed suicide and provide free education and accommodation to their families. It has also demanded that the Govt. save this ‘swadeshi’ industry by extending the ‘national textile market’; revive ‘Janata’ scheme; procure weavers’ products; implement group insurance for weavers,; implement Minimum Wage Act in weaving sector and clear all pending payments to APCo.