Karnataka - Bangalore   

Weavers in Doddaballapur town face an uncertain future

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

in the doldrums: A powerloom unit at Doddaballapur, near Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Until 1995, Doddaballapur enjoyed an 18-year dream run as a “boomtown”; its 25,000-plus powerlooms making the town, 40 km from the State capital, a bustling Rs. 3-crore cottage industry that fed every demanding silk and art silk market in Bangalore and beyond.

Today, it could well be “doomtown.” Most of the powerlooms have fallen silent. Some of the families, belonging to the traditional weaving community, the Devangas, are still running their looms because they know no other way to make ends meet.

Take the case of Padmavathi’s family.

Ms. Padmavathi’s three sons and their wives work the looms, the winding and the warping machines, but at the end of the day, all they save is the money they would have paid the hired workers who are no longer available. Though women generally do not work the loom, the daughters-in-law are quite used to doing so, and it has become a 100 per cent family concern. The workers have gone to greener pastures, like the new apparel park in town, or other garment factories dedicated for exports.

The plight of Somashekhar, a weaver, is worse. His two looms are hired at a monthly rate of Rs. 800 per month. The home-cum-loom is also rented, and after discounting the overheads, he makes around Rs. 800 in a bad month, or Rs. 3,000 in a good month. “The subsidised power supply — powerloom users pay Rs. 1.75 per unit — is our only consolation,” Mr. Somashekhar said.

Whether it is Mr. Somashekhar or Ms. Padmavathi, it is the tight grip of the financiers and the dealers who purchase the silk fabric that hurts most. According to B.G. Hemanthraj, president of the Nekarara Horata Samiti, globalisation and liberalisation of the economy in the early nineties sounded the death knell for Doddaballapur’s weaving community.

The weavers are totally at the mercy of the people who supply the raw material and those who purchase the finished fabric for the markets. With no regulation by the Government, the prices of yarn that is the raw material can dip and rise according to the whims of the suppliers.

Mr Somashekhar, who was expecting to be paid Rs. 65 for a sari, has now been told he will only get Rs. 60, because the prices have fallen, and buyers always drive a hard bargain.

In the good old days, they were paid Rs. 100. Mr. Hemanthraj, who recently won the elections to the Doddaballapur City Municipal Council on a CPI (M) ticket, said the problem worsened after several synthetic versions of silk and other fabrics hit the market, and the lure of silk had been replaced by the ease of low-maintenance long-lasting polyester and rayon fabrics that also cost less than a quarter of the original.

Mr. Hemanthraj said weavers everywhere in the State had remained “invisible” to policy-makers as they were part of the unorganised sector. They only managed to catch the attention of political parties after they organised a protest in 2002 that froze business for nine days in Doddaballapur and four days in Bangalore. The reason for the protest: raw material costs had shot up by Rs. 50 a kg. Their protest was partially successful. Suppliers promised to consult them before hiking prices henceforth.

The weavers, like other unorganised sectors, do not have a cushion in case of loss of jobs.

They have no insurance or healthcare benefits. The rates for their finished product are determined by the buyers. They entered the election manifestoes of political parties for the first time in 2004 after they raised the demand for waiver of interest on loans.

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