Fig. 2.1 Share of total cloth production (in percentage) by various textile sectors Source: Textile Commissioner Office, Mumbai (2016)
India is being viewed as a country, offering an enormous opportunity for increased textile consumption due to very low per capita textile consumption when compared with many developed nations. Per capita consumption of textiles (Fig. 2.2) for European Union was at 729 Sq. M.; the USA at 727 Sq. M.; China at 209 Sq. M. and India at 44 Sq. M.
Fig. 2.2 Consumption of cloth in the world (Source: ITMF)
(ITMF, 2016; Basu, 2016). Though the per capita consumption of cloth in India has increased by 132% i.e. from 19 Sq. M. (2005) to 44 Sq. M. (2015) but still it was on lower side when compared to European Union, the United States of America and China
59%
25%
11%
4% 1%
(Fig. 2.3). The increase in consumption was mainly due to growth in population and fashion trends in urban areas (Basu, 2016).
Fig. 2.3 Consumption of cloth in the world (Source: ITMF)
2.3 Handlooms in India
India occupies a prominent place in terms of productivity and the number of handlooms and produces 85% of the handlooms of the world (Handloom Census of India 2009- 2010; Garg et al, 2012). The handloom cottage industry is one of the largest unorganized non-farm economic activities and constitutes an integral part of the rural and semi-rural livelihood (Corporate catalyst India, 2013). It forms a valuable part of the generational inheritance and symbolizes the richness, which has been kept alive by skilled and semi- skilled weavers engaged in the age-old tradition of weaving (Garg et al., 2012). Being the decentralised sector, it is a household-based industry having the contribution of the whole family and scattered across thousands of villages and towns in the country. The sector evinced a close medley in terms of managerial base, products, and relations between performers within the organization. The sector is still sustained by transferring skills from one generation to another.
India is known as the custodian of the global handloom. This sector is having the capability of exponential growth. Handloom weaving in India is not only a profession but also a cultural inheritance which symbolizes the bonding of love, care, richness, tradition and respect. The strength of the sector lies due to the unparalleled achievement of the level of artistry, intricacy, innovation and uniqueness of certain weaves/designs in the handloom fabrics which are still beyond the scope of modern machines. This
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2005 2010 2015
Per Capita Cloth Consumption ( Sq. Mtr.)
INDIA CHINA US EU
industry has an advantage of being less capital and highly labour intensive, using minimal power, eco-friendly, the flexibility of small production, openness to innovations and adaptability to market requirements. The sector can develop and manufacture the exclusive and exquisite range of fabrics which takes months together to weave and up to the popular items of mass production for daily use.
Handloom industry is the only industry in the world as well as in India which virtually remains pertinent for centuries together and has been surviving since time immemorial. Even though millions have been spent by the various governments in the last 100 years in this sector but this sector has the instinctive perseverance to survive and relevant to the current textile needs of the country (Bhagavatula, 2010).
Being the ancient cottage industry of India, nearly 43.31 lakh handloom households are engaged directly or indirectly in weaving and allied activities on 23.77 lakh handlooms for their livelihood, out of which 87% are located in rural areas and rest in the urban areas. At national level except in northeastern states, the weaving activity was dominated by male weavers (24.3%) than in the allied activities (15.2%). Moreover, the participation of the male worker in weaving activities was also relatively higher in urban areas (57.1%) as compared to rural areas (19.2%) (Handloom Census of India 2009 - 2010).
Besides the direct employment, this sector engages 1.5 persons per weaver indirectly in the production, over and above generates employment for handloom and accessories manufacturers, twisters, dyers, processors, printers and sellers etc. which contributes to 5.5 percent of the employment in the decentralized sector of the country’s economy. But due to increase in economic thrust and to support the family income with the urge to become self-dependent more and more handloom weavers’ have made headway into various economic sectors to earn their livelihood.
2.3.1 History and Origin of the Handloom Industry in India
Handloom is a symbol of nationalism, equality and self-reliance. Even after almost seven decades of independence the cottage industry in rural India is still to congregate the required momentum. The handloom industry has regained the vitality due to its inseparable links with our ancient cultural heritage which is of traditional significance.
Broudy (1993) reported that no one knew how weaving embarked on. A human being might have learned the process of weaving from spider and silkworm. Some literature
reveals that Chinese prince wife Si-Ling-Chi invented the loom in 2640 B.C. The earliest cotton weaving has traditionally been associated with India. From the ruins of Mohenjo- Daro in the Indus valley of Pakistan (2500 B.C.), a small piece of cloth and two lengths of yarn, one of 12 ply and other of 24 ply have been recuperated. However, it has already been established that existence of weaving was known about eight thousand years before Christ in the world and handloom weaving might have been started between 5000 B.C.
and 3000 B.C. It is also found in Ramayana and Mahabharata that speak about the length of craft (Bansal, 2012; Jain and Gera, 2017).
From history, it is reflected that during the Industrial Revolution (the year 1821) in Britain, due to set up of textile mills in England the position of India in the world trade was dislocated (Das, 2001). British manufacturer acquires the good quality of cotton from India through East India Company, for their rising industry (Buchanan, 2013) which led to the decline in hand spinning of yarn, bound to put out of place the livelihood of millions of spinners in India. The industry fell more and more under the grip of middlemen. Thus the independence of most weavers, who used to produce niche fabrics, disappeared and the majority of them came to work under Mahajan either on the contract or on the wage basis.
Marx also observes that the colonial rule broke up the backbone of the Indian handloom and destroyed the spinning wheel of this sector. They routed the Indian raw cotton after twisting through the European market in India, the quantum of which enhanced stupendously during the year 1824 to 1837 (Buchanan, 2013).
2.3.2 Handloom in India: State-wise scenario
According to handloom census report (2009 - 2010), there was a decline in handloom weavers households from 25.25 lakh to 22.68 lakh but overall households have increased to 27.83 lakh across 29 states and Union Territories of India which substantiate that more number of workers have associated with the handloom and allied handloom activities.
Status of Handloom workers
North-Eastern states enjoy the status of having the highest number (60.5%) of handloom households. In which Assam alone has 44.6% handloom households (Fig. 2.4), whereas Manipur and Tripura have 6.4% and 4.3%, respectively. Other states having comparatively large handloom household concentrations are West Bengal 14.6%,
Andhra Pradesh 6.4%, Tamil Nadu 6.8% and Uttar Pradesh 4.0%. There was a considerable increase in the total man-days worked by weavers household from 4977 to 5313 and man-days worked per weaver household during the census year (2009 - 10) from 197 to 234. Moreover, full-time weaving activities have increased from 44% to 64% and the weavers producing less than one meter of fabric per day have reduced to 46% from 68%. The share of the weaver having more than 60% of their total income from the handloom and related activities have also increased from 31% to 35% with a considerable decrease in the share of idle looms to 4% from 10% whereas the idle looms proportion was highest (4.5%) in the North-Eastern states. The trends substantiated that more and more weavers’ households were having an orientation towards commercial production. The report also revealed that about half of the handlooms households in the northeastern states were engaged for domestic production (45.9%) which did not support any household income whereas 24.4% handlooms households undertake mixed production and 25.2% of them worked solely for commercial production (Handloom Census of India 2009 - 2010).
Fig. 2.4 State wise handloom workers households (Source: Handloom Census of India 2009-2010)
Analysis of the state-wise production reflected that except the North-Eastern states, all other states handloom units were mainly engaged into commercial production.
In other states, about 53.1% of households were engaged in commercial production, while 15.8% in both domestic and commercial production and rest in domestic
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AS TN AP UP OD KA BR JK KL UT HP GJ PB DL SK
Handloom Workers Households (in Thousands)
States / UTs
Total Handloom Worker Households (in Thousands) state wise in India
production. Maximum handloom commercial production was from the state of Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh whereas in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal the commercial production was carried out in certain pockets and rest handloom households were engaged in domestic or mixed production (Handloom Census of India 2009-2010).
Handloom owning households
Northeastern states having the maximum (80.2 %) handloom owning household and Odisha shared the second place having 77.5 % handloom owning household (Fig. 2.5) as compared to the national average (66.5%) and there 33.5 % households were without handlooms in various parts of the country (Fig. 2.6).
Fig. 2.5 State wise handloom owning households (%) in India (Source: Handloom Census of India 2009-2010)
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NE OD TN KA UP WB AP OTHER
STATES
Loom Owning Households(%)