SIDDIPET, POCHAMPALLY & KOYALAGUDDEM, India, Jan 08 (IPS) – The southern Indian state of Telangana has always been home to exquisite cotton and silk weaves. But in recent years, lack of market access, expensive inputs, and government apathy have taken their toll on the weaving community. As a result, the younger generation is refraining from pursuing this traditional occupation and opting for more lucrative pursuits.
This is evident when one visits the weaving towns of the state. Take Siddipet, which is about 100 km from the metropolitan city of Hyderabad. Siddipet has always been known for its exquisite cotton saris and stoles. But today, only about a hundred wizened individuals, spread over seven handloom cooperatives, still weave.
Srivikailasam is a renowned middle-aged weaver who was honoured by the Chief Minister with the Konda Laxman Bapuji Award. His saris, dupattas and stoles are prized items in the export market. Yet none of his children—a son and two daughters—want to inherit his craft.
Another weaver, known as Ilaiyah, has been weaving for the past 60 years, since he turned 15. Yet his children have turned their backs to weaving.
Yadagiri has also been weaving for the past 60 years, like his fellow weavers. But neither his son nor daughter are interested in learning to weave.
Master weaver Mallikarjun Siddi, who also owns a marketing outlet in Siddipet, followed his father, renowned weaver Buchaiah Siddi, into the profession. But his children have opted out of this traditional occupation.
However, Siddi defends the youngsters.
“Why would youngsters want to adopt a profession that pays so little? A weaver earns Rs 1000 (USD 11.82) a day here, and it takes three full days to weave a sari. A job in the IT hub of HiTech City in Hyderabad fetches a lot more.”
Worse, the Telangana government does not subsidize electricity; this has resulted in the Siddipet weavers continuing to use handlooms instead of switching to powerlooms, making their work even more tedious and hard. Electricity is Rs 10 (USD 0.12) a unit. If subsidized, the cost comes down to Rs 1 (US$ 0.012) per unit. Power loom machinery is expensive, ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to 6 lakh (USD 1773.5 to USD 7101). With electricity subsidy, a weaver can bear the burden. Otherwise, it is not possible. Hence, even today, you see only handlooms here,” explains Siddi.
Marketing the product is also tough. The government buys the product at higher rates but does so lackadaisically. “Their representatives come only once a year, and although the payment is higher, it is not immediate. Private parties come regularly, and often, pay immediately,” say weavers.
The story is hardly any different in Pochampally, world-renowned for its ikat silk weaves. Ikat here can be either single ikat or double ikat, with the second being even more expensive. The yarn has to be initially soaked and then dyed before weaving. Since ikat weaves require every thread of the yarn to be dyed separately, a power loom can never be used. Thus, ikat weaves, whether cotton or silk, must be woven on a handloom, as master weaver Laxman Tadaka points out. The silk yarn comes from Bengaluru and is priced at Rs 4500 (USD 53.20) per kilogram. A weaver needs an average of 6 kg of yarn to weave seven saris a month. To bear the cost of inputs and the effort, a weaver must make enough sales. “The 15 percent subsidy extended by the government can hardly suffice,” Tadaka points out.
Rudra Anjanelu, manager of the Pochampally Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society, says they are dependent on subsidies.
“Our silk saris are expensive. But we cannot afford to give discounts unless the government supports us. A major problem is the 5 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) that has now been imposed by the central government. It makes saris and other silk products even more expensive.”
In the past, the state government used to render marketing support through its outlets, offering the products to customers at discounted prices, especially during the festive season, while subsidizing weavers. This is not forthcoming anymore, making it tough for weavers.
Most weavers have to rely on the Telangana State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society Limited (TSCO), their apex cooperative, to sell their product.
“We had suggested a method to jack up our sales. The Telangana government has a Kalyanalakshmi scheme, wherein parents of girls are given Rs 1 lakh (USD 1182.32) for their daughter’s wedding. Along with the money, the government could easily provide a sari worth Rs 10,000 (USD 118.23) for the bride. This will help us weavers too, while helping the parents with the bridal trousseau,” Anjanelu says.
Besides, most weavers are not happy with the quality of the subsidized yarn provided by the government through the National Handloom Development Corporation.
Muralikrishnan, a weaver from Koyalaguddem, a village renowned for its cotton ikat, laments, “The yarn provided by the government is of inferior quality and this, in turn, can affect the quality of our end product. It is unlike what we get from private traders.”
Moreover, as Anjanelu points out, “Yarn has to be paid for. When sales are down, how can weavers buy any yarn?”
A big challenge for handloom weavers remains the flooding of markets by printed duplicates, which sell at a fraction of the price of handloom fabric.
On hindsight, though, it is not as if nothing was done for weavers by the Telangana government. However, if weavers have not experienced long-term benefits, could this be attributed to the outcome of the ballot?
The previous Chandrashekhar Reddy (state) government, for instance, introduced a 36-month savings-cum-insurance scheme for weavers termed the Thrift Scheme, wherein the government contributed an amount matching the investment made by an individual.
In Pochampally, land was also sanctioned for a handloom institute, and a handloom park was set up on the outskirts of the town. However, with a new Chief Minister getting elected, the plans came to naught. The Handloom Park too suffered from bad planning. Weavers who had set up shop at the park now have to market their products from their homes.
It is ironical that the weavers of Pochampally, Koyalaguddem and Siddipet find it tough to sell their exquisite weaves, despite being located in the vicinity of metropolitan Hyderabad, which boasts of an upwardly mobile population with high disposable income.
Notwithstanding the problems faced, there are a few who have found a solution. Dudyala Shankar and Muralikrishnan of Koyalaguddem have diversified their range of products to include ikat fabric and bedsheets, alongside traditional saris, dupattas, and stoles. Muralikrishnan has been accessing markets all over India through the internet, from his dusty little village.
“It is the only way out,” he tells me.
Indeed, the World Wide Web can certainly fill in where humans cannot. Product diversification and market access translating into sales may ultimately wean back the younger generation to keep the weaving tradition alive in Telangana and prevent it from dying out.
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