Karnataka - Bijapur   

Struggling to survive

Suresh Bhat

FIGHTING HUNGER: A weaver's family prepares `chakkulis' at Kolhar hobli in Basavanabagewadi taluk of Bijapur district.

BIJAPUR: For long, Thippanna, a weaver in Kolhar hobli in Basavanabagewadi taluk dreamt of giving good education to his children. But the continued recession in the handloom sector deprived him of a job, and the family has been forced to take up do petty work for survival.

They are registered weavers with Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation that is supposed to provide them work for whole year. The corporation provides yarns to its members (registered weavers) who have to weave the cloth and supply it back.

In turn, the corporation gives them wages based on the quantity of work.

According to Mr. Thippanna, they had no work from the KHDC for the last three months. It forced them to take up small jobs for survival.

While Thippanna and his wife Sangavva make "chakkuli", their children sell them to passengers at bus station for Re. 1 per piece. "The margin has shrunk drastically.

If we all work for the whole day, and market the produce fully, we save Rs. 50. What worries us is that our children are not able to go to school regularly," says Sangavva. There is a special scholarship scheme for schoolchildren of weavers. But the amount has not been released for two years, she told The Hindu .

The situation of other weavers is not different either. Every family of weavers has its own tale to narrate. Many of them have become agriculture and construction workers.

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