Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur   

Weavers’ woes despite welfare schemes

ANANTAPUR: The fact that most of the schemes being implemented by the State and Central governments for the welfare and development of handloom weavers was not reaching the target community was taken to the notice of the officials of Handlooms and Textiles Department and the district administration by the functionaries of Weavers’ United Front here.

The life of weavers, within as well as outside cooperative societies was pathetic due to exploitation by master weavers and middlemen, functionaries of the WUF led by its chairman K.A.N. Moorthy explained the officials. Lack of inputs like finance for looms and raw materials and lack of marketing facilities were forcing the common weavers to give themselves up to master weavers, middlemen and wholesalers who unscrupulously harass them, they alleged.

The master weavers and middlemen would supply raw materials to the weavers at higher rates than available in the market and purchase the product at lower rates than offered in the market, they stated. The exchange of views and ideas was facilitated during a meeting conducted by Joint Collector T. Chiranjeevulu on the status of weavers and the welfare and development schemes being implemented for them in the district here recently.

Mr. Moorthy, who is also the former chairman of Serifed, stated that most of the weavers were not in the organised cooperative sector and even those in the sector were not getting the government benefits properly. He also suggested provision of periodical training and marketing facilities, where the weaver would have a say. The market at Erode in Tamil Nadu, where buyers would come to sellers and the sellers would dispose their product for the best offer, was the best example, he stated.

When the Joint Collector sought to know about the status of weavers in the district in-charge Assistant Director of Handlooms and Textiles N. Ramakrishna Reddy stated that there were 254 weavers’ cooperative societies with 26,725 members and of them 170 societies were functioning well. There were about one lakh looms and around one lakh weavers outside the cooperative sector, he said.

The JC expressed dismay over the misleading statistics reeled out by the officials and stated that a survey conducted by an NGO, ‘Chips’ from Chirala, in the district had revealed that there were about 1.6 lakh hand looms and 4.5 lakh weavers. About 75 per cent of the weavers were eking out a living by working as labourers with the master weavers and were earning mere Rs. 2,000 per month.

The officials stated that 1,400 handloom weavers were given artisan credit cards and another 600 were given financial assistance after being formed into self help groups. The JC remarked that the quantum of coverage appeared to be not even one per cent compared to the total weavers. Later, it was decided in the meeting to conduct awareness campaign for weavers at Mudireddypalli, Dharmavaram, Yadiki, Uravakonda, Rayadurg, Tadipatri, Somandepalli and other areas.

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