Weavers' woes in A.P.

By K. Srinivasulu

SUICIDES IN Andhra Pradesh are a routine affair! That has been the standard refrain in the official response to the news of suicides of around 40 powerloom weavers in Sircilla town in Karimnagar district, and of around 20 handloom weavers in the coastal Andhra and Telangana regions during the last few months. These are only the latest in the spate of suicides in the Andhra Pradesh. During the last decade, the State has established a record of sorts for suicides among different communities. Recollect the suicides and starvation deaths among the weavers in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and of more than 300 farmers in Telengana in 1998, and a critical picture of the state of the livelihood patterns and community entitlements of the people dependent on artisan and agricultural sectors emerges.

What is striking about the official responses to the handloom crisis is the predictability. Three aspects could be deciphered in this. First, the problem is perceived and projected as a localised one. Second, these communities are said to be lacking in skills and their products in quality. Third, to make them competitive the solution is said to lie in technology upgradation and training. The above perception not only fails to understand the context, intensity and expanse of the crisis in the handloom and powerloom sectors but because of the misdiagnosis of the problem, parades spurious solutions which could only push them deeper into crises. The tendency to compare the present suicides with those of the early 1990s in fact conceals the seriousness of the present crisis. A proper appreciation of this is necessary to come out with genuine solutions and evolve appropriate policy interventions.

Crucial to the understanding of the crisis in the handloom sector, which employs 12.5 million weavers, the second largest workforce in the country after agricultural labour, is awareness of the policy shift in the textile sector since the mid-1980s. The 1985 textile policy for the first time, moving away from employment protection and providing cloth to rural and urban poor hitherto identified as policy objectives by the Governments in independent India, emphasised productivity, efficiency and competition - among the three sectors of handlooms, powerlooms and mills that comprise the textile industry - as goals worth pursuing. This policy shift paved the way for major changes in the textile scenario. One of the important aspects of this was the removal of restrictions on the powerloom sector. As a result, a massive proliferation and upgradation of the powerloom sector could be witnessed in the following years.

Though the 1985 policy provided protection to handlooms in the form of reservation of 22 items and hank yarn obligation by the spinning mills to supply 50 per cent of the yarn produced by them to this sector, these safeguards were grossly violated in practice. The story of the reservation act illustrates the official apathy towards the weaving community. Challenged by the powerloom and mill lobbies this act remained sub judice for eight long years till the Supreme Court upheld it as constitutionally valid in its historic judgment in 1993. Instead of creating the necessary mechanism for its implementation, the Central Government constituted a review committee to go into this question all over again. On the basis of its recommendation the number of items was reduced by half. During this period whatever damage could be done to handlooms was done by the powerlooms and mills not only by producing the varieties reserved for the handloom sector but also duplicating the designs that define the identity of this sector.

The second factor critical to the understanding of the present crisis are the economic reforms initiated in 1991. As a result of trade liberalisation, there was a quantum jump in the exports of cotton and yarn in the early 1990s. This led to a steep rise in the hank yarn prices in the local market without corresponding increase in the product prices. So, in a number of handloom centres, with the master-weavers reluctant to take the risk, production was suspended. Thus thrown out of employment and into serious indebtedness, malnutrition and disease, around 200 weavers either died of starvation or resorted to suicides.

The powerloom crisis being witnessed in the northern Telengana districts in the form of increasing number of suicides also has to be understood against the above background. The powerloom sector, following the 1985 policy, has experienced significant changes. The most important change being the technological upgradation facilitated by the liberalisation of technology import. The powerloom sector in northern Telengana, which has prospered since the 1970s by installing looms purchased from centres in western India, is put to disadvantage on account of this development. The weavers producing coarse varieties on these ordinary looms face stiff competition from the semi-automatic and jet looms.

Like the handlooms, even the powerlooms face the problem of sudden and unpredictable fluctuations in yarn prices. Added to this is the increase in the power tariffs in the State following the power sector reforms. With the cost of production increasing unmanageably on account of the hike in yarn and dye prices and power tariffs and without corresponding increase in the product prices (unable to face competition from the cheap products from Tamil Nadu, where the powerloom sector enjoys competitive advantage) the powerloom master-weavers, 80 per cent of whom are small owners with four to six looms, are inclined to stop production. What further compounds their plight is the irregular power supply. The sense of hopelessness and desperation among the weavers can be gauged from the fact that as many as 1,000 looms were sold as scrap during the last couple of months.

The 2000 textile policy formulated on the basis of the recommendations of the Satyam committee proposed far-reaching changes in the industry. The most significant aspect of this is the phasing out of even the limited protection available to the handlooms. What is further recommended is that the bulk of weavers both in handloom and powerloom sectors identified as the least skilled lot producing coarse fabric be shifted in a `least painful' manner to the semi-automatic powerlooms by providing them with the necessary training!

But the crucial question is how many weavers can be accommodated in the semi-automatic and jet powerloom sector. It is pertinent to recollect the observation of the 1974 Shivaraman Committee report on the inter-sectoral changes in the textile industry. Estimating that the installation of one powerloom displaces 12 handloom weavers, the report firmly argued that the growth of powerlooms had been quite disastrous for handlooms. The rate of displacement at the present technological level would be much higher. The Satyam Committee recommendations, if implemented fully, will only deepen the crisis not only in the handloom but also in the powerloom sector with serious social consequences.

It is time the powers that be realised that the genuine solution to the weavers' problem lies in the assured supply of yarn and dyes at reasonable prices, accessibility to institutional finance, so that they can escape the private debt trap, and proper marketing facilities, rather than disastrous schemes such as loom modernisation.

(The writer is Professor, Department of Political Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad).

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