Non-farm Sector Enterprises and Employment
151
in the rural areas and in weaving clusters a
number of livelihoods depend on themarket
for handloom fabrics being improved.
The handloom weavers face rising input
costs, low credit availability and high cost
of credit, marketing hurdles, infrastructure
gaps and low education and skill levels. Yarn
supply is a perennial problem. Availability
of good quality yarn at reasonable prices
is hard to come by. Mostly yarn has to be
transported from southern India (where
it is produced) to North-east (where most
looms and weavers are located) at high
freight costs. The National Handloom
Development Corporation (NHDC) set
up 788 yarn depots in different parts of the
country to provide reasonably priced yarn
to weavers. But the supply from yarn depots
of NHDC caters to only 15 per cent of the
demand. There is also a geographical skew
in presence of depots. Assam for example
has 44 per cent of weavers but has only
5.6 per cent of yarn depots! Availability of
azo-free quality dyes is also an aspect deserv-
ing attention. Yarn depots can also attend
to supply of dyes with NHDC’s support.
Upgradation of dye infrastructure is enabled
through GoI scheme for handloom cluster
development. The dye houses are exclusively
used by master weavers and the other weav-
ers are unable to access dye houses for their
requirements. This needs to remedied by
investing inmore dye houses in the clusters.
Lack of financial literacy and lack of col-
lateral drives weavers to access credit from
informal sources. They depend on the trader
or the master weaver for their credit needs.
The rawmaterial is taken on credit and even
advance wages are availed from the master
weaver or trader. This creates problems in
pricing and marketing. The weavers have to
remain content with the wage employment.
The government schemes under which
weavers either individually or in cooperative
society groups can avail loans are useful for a
small number of weavers. The largemajority
of weavers are starved of funds from formal
sources which can improve their ability to
market products at a better price.
The Handloom Mark has been launched
to serve as a guarantee to the buyers that
the handloom products being purchased by
them are genuine hand-woven products and
not power loom or mill-made products.
A number of design interventions have been
introduced in key handloomclusters with the
support of leading institutes such as National
Institute of Design, National Institute of
Fashion Technology, etc. Skill building of the
weavers is also necessary to try out new and
contemporary designs. Research and devel-
opment work on loom design for improving
productivity and reducing weaver fatigue are
aspects that need more focus. Private sector
partnerships can bring in the technical and
marketing resources to the advantage of all. In
developing Khadi Denim (Box 7.1), private
sector initiative yielded good results.
While the value of domestic sales of
handloomproducts is not reported, exports
amounted to
`
22.46 billion in 2014–15,
declining from the peak of
`
28.12 billion
achieved in 2012–13.
3
The industry has
to reorient itself to meet the marketing
challenges that are being faced on account of
economic, social and technological changes.
Improving the production process to ensure
defect free fabrics that cater to the modern
consumer preferences is a good starting
point. Branding and geographical identifica-
tion of speciality handloom products will
go a long way in establishing a remunera-
tive and sustainable market which avoids
competition from power loom goods (Box
7.2). Given that India has a rich variety of
handloom catering to different tastes and
requirements, a concerted attempt at brand
based marketing is essential.
Currently, themajor programme support-
ing this sector is Comprehensive Handloom
Cluster Development Scheme (CHCDS)
which has the objective of assisting the
entrepreneurs/weavers to set up facilities
with modern infrastructure. This interven-
tion seeks to enhance the competitiveness
3
Source: Handloom Export Promotion Council.
2015. Available at:
