Iconic fabrics face existential threat

Don’t give us alms, buy our products.” Gajanan Gunjeri’s words speak of the crisis that is engulfing the handloom industry in the state.

Gunjeri, who heads Belagavi Zilla Nekara Sanghatana Okkuta, recalls how the authorities first encouraged handloom weavers of Belagavi district to switch over to powerlooms by giving incentives. Many people took out loans to invest in hi-tech machinery but are now unable to repay the loans.

“We are left in the lurch now,” he says, as the stock of sarees and fabric pile up.

Four weavers have died by suicide in Belagavi district over the past year, with Covid-19 piling onto the misery of the community after the floods of 2019.

“The government did not come to our rescue during a time of crisis. We were given some compensation but that wasn’t adequate,” Gunjeri says.

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He claims the government departments procure cloth from weavers, but the open tenders are bagged by weavers from Gujarat and Maharashtra, who quote cheaper prices. “It is not fair that the government neglects our weavers,” he explains.

Dormancy of govt departments

Gunjeri also blamed the dormancy of various corporations working under the textile department and their obscure welfare schemes for the increasing gap between weavers and the department. He alleged the officers, working there hardly knew about grassroot weavers and their needs and were inaccessible to weavers.

Several distinct weaves of North Karnataka, including those with a Geographical indication tag such as Ilkal sarees, Guledgudda khana, and Navalgund dhurries, are facing an existential crisis.

The tag should ideally have helped weavers fetch a better price and checked the sale of spurious products. But a ground-level check indicates that most small weavers were hardly aware of the GI tag, let alone using it.

Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC) Managing Director Gurudutta Hegde admitted that a lot more has to be done to ensure that the weavers get benefit of the GI Tag status for their products.

“It takes two days of hard work to weave one authentic handloom Ilkal saree and we earn somewhere between Rs 400 and 500 per saree. With such meagre wages, we cannot make ends meet. We do not know any other work except weaving and have no other option. We do not want our coming generations to suffer like us,” said Basavaraj Minajigi, a 43-year-old weaver from Sulebhavi in Bagalkot district, which has the highest number of looms in North Karnataka.

The condition of smaller clusters in Sulebhavi, Ilkal, Amingad, Kamatagi and other places who weave these ‘Ilkal sarees’ is similar, putting these iconic sarees under threat of extinction.

Ashok Shyavi, a third generation weaver from Ilkal, says the community has also failed to move beyond its traditional customer base, limiting themselves to traditional designs.

“Though some fashion designers have tried reviving the designs, weavers do not accept change easily. Sadly, to be in the competition, many in Guledgudda have even set up power looms and turned to cheaper yarns like polyester and viscose,” he says.

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Shyavi says Ilkal has between eight to ten weaving societies but only 5 to 10% of weavers are associated with them due to their inactive nature.

Even Navalgund dhurries, woven mostly by women in Dharwad, weavers making Belagavi’s Shahpuri sarees, the quality handloom sarees and bedspreads from the handloom units in the twin towns Gadag-Betageri in Gadag district, have all been affected.

Another major problem for saree weavers is procuring raw materials. Most small weavers are always at the mercy of the Sahukars (master weavers) and have to purchase the materials at the price quoted, which adds to their production cost.

The weavers in Bagalkot want the government to hold a survey of weavers, provide identity cards so they can get better access to government schemes and even want a textile park to be set up.

Many weavers are also demanding medical aid and insurance due to the professional hazards they face.