Karnataka   

Schemes for weavers remain only on paper

Firoz Rozindar

Lack of marketing facilities, dearth of funds leave them in distress

Chitradurga: “Our situation is no different from that of farmers in distress. Since years, successive governments have kept rendering only lip-services. Most of the projects which were launched for our welfare have remained only on paper.” These are the woes of most of the weavers of Chitradurga district.

According to the records available with Handloom and Textile Department here, the district has over 7,000 weavers, who are into wool, cotton or silk weaving. Challakere taluk of the district is the heartland of wool weavers which has the largest (about 5,000) number of weavers. The weavers are either working for cooperative association or master weavers, while a few are working individually. A total of 64 cooperative associations are functioning, of which 42 are active. According to the department, the weekly turnover of wool products in Chalkere alone is over Rs.35 lakh.

Molakalmur, a taluk of the district, is considered the hub of silk weaving where close to 1,200 people are depending on this profession. A marginal number of people are also involved in cotton weaving.

Despite having a substantial number of weavers, which has the potential to give higher revenue to State exchequer, the schemes framed for he development of the sector appear meagre.

In the financial year 2005-06, under the Rashtriya Sama Vikas Yojana, the Government proposed to spend Rs. 1 crore for the district in three years. For first year, it released Rs. 32 lakh, but the remaining amount was not released. “We received only Rs. 7 lakh towards training this year, no amount was released last year,” Deputy Director, Handloom and Textile Department, S. Prakash said.

He said that owing to dearth of funds, the Department was not in a position to help the weaving sector to bring it out of crises.

Each wool handloom costs between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 25,000, cotton loom needs around Rs 15,000 while silk loom costs Rs. 50,000. The government funds are too inadequate to meet any requirements.

Paatlingappa, secretary of cooperative association at Chalkere, laments that the Government announced to distribute loans at 4 per cent interest to weavers, but no bank was coming forward to provide loans.

Other major complaint of the weavers is improper marketing facility. They said that in the absence of better marketing places, middlemen were ruling the roost. They exploited the weaver by purchasing the products at cheaper price and made heavy profits.

“The silk weavers are also in distress due emergence of powerlooms. Though the Union Government has made rule that the powerlooms should not copy the patters of handlooms, which will allow the handlooms to maintain its distinct style, powerloom owners are violating the rule,” said Mr. Ramesh.

He said that a decade ago, Molakalmur taluk had nearly 3,000 handlooms, which has now come down to about 300. Many weavers who did not find profit in the profession have switched to other professions.

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