The famed handloom sector in Puducherry, a traditional avocation right from the French period in the Union Territory, is now on the verge of extinction because of dwindling number of weavers in all the cooperative societies coupled with acute shortage of raw material and rapid fall in production.
After agriculture, the handloom sector was the largest employer in Puducherry with over 10,000 workers registered with the 13 primary weavers’ cooperative societies of Pontex. Pontex was started in 1957 to ensure continuous employment for weavers in the city by arranging regular supply of yarn.
The handloom fabric produced by the weavers attached to 13 primary weavers’ cooperative societies was supplied to Pontex for distribution under various government schemes of the Departments of Social Welfare and Adi Dravidar Welfare.
Similarly, the Pondicherry Cooperative Handloom Export Development Project, popularly known as Ponfab, was established in the 1980s to cater to the overseas markets.
But all these major handloom weavers’ bodies are now in serious financial crisis.
The availability of yarn and other raw material for Pontex and Ponfab has reduced and the two major cooperative bodies are at the fag end of their survival.
Vanishing tribe
According to CPI(M) secretary R. Rajangam, “An artificial shortage of looms and other requirements has been created in Pontex landing the weavers in poverty. As against 10,000 weavers at its peak, the cooperative now has only 1,000 workers. Most weavers have left the avocation for good because of lack of proper wages.”
Weavers complain that lack of proper administration and planning and want of encouragement of the handloom sector has been chiefly responsible for the present situation of shortage of yarn and other requirements.
“The apex cooperative weavers’ society at Thattanchavady has 100 looms. But only 40 of them are operating and the rest are idle because of shortage of yarn. If one part is available, the other part is missing which only cripples the operation of the unit,” says V. Manoharan, a weaver.
The situation is similar in all weavers’ cooperative societies in Puducherry. For weavers, the wages mainly depend on the output.
“When there is work, we get a maximum of ₹150 a day.
“The supply of yarn is erratic and we get work only for four months in a year. We received our wages last on March 21. We have borrowed money from private lenders to meet the family’s daily expenses,” say P. Muthu and his wife M. Selvarani of Bahour.
