The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Plan to start 28 handloom clusters

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Wednesday, Oct 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Plan to start 28 handloom clusters

Special Correspondent

Government taking steps to enhance weavers’ wages

Upgrading handlooms to improve efficiency of handlooms
Appeal to go for innovative designs to attract the younger generation

VIRUDHUNAGAR: The State Government was taking steps to improve the efficiency of handlooms and also enhance the wages of weavers, said the Minister for Backward Classes Welfare, Handlooms and Textiles, K. K. S. S. R. Ramachandran, while inaugurating the Punalveli handloom cluster at Srivilliputtur near here last week.

Mr. Ramachandran said that though there was an increasing public patronage for handloom goods the weavers found it difficult to match production with demand. One of the reasons for this was a migration to powerlooms from handlooms, owing to higher wages.

Shortage of manpower

There was also a shortage of manpower in the handloom industry as children of weavers preferred more lucrative professions.

The Minister said that the Government was aware of the situation and was taking steps to improve weavers’ wages.

It was also involved in upgrading handlooms to improve their efficiency so that three saris could be made in the time taken to weave one sari now. It was exploring the possibility of improving output by minimising involvement of human labour, Mr. Ramachandran said.

Exclusive handloom cluster

While appealing to weavers to go for innovative designs in order to attract the younger generation, as handloom goods were in demand among working women and students, Mr. Ramachandran gave an assurance that efforts would be made to create an exclusive handloom cluster for Srivilliputtur.

In his presidential address, Vishwanath Shegaonkar, Secretary, Handlooms, said that it had been planned to start 28 handloom clusters in the State during 2008-09.

M.P. Nirmala, Managing Director, Cooptex, and R. Jaya, Director, Handlooms and Textiles, spoke. K. Karnan, Additional Director, Handlooms, welcomed the gathering and M. Velusamy, Assistant Director, proposed a vote of thanks.

Welfare assistance

Mr. Ramachandran distributed welfare assistance to the tune of Rs 12.74 lakh to 180 weavers.

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