At Kalikkavalasu, near Chennimalai in Erode district, as many as 580 looms are in operation for eight to 10 hours a day, making fabrics that go into making bed sheets, bags, stoles, quilts, etc.
The Kalikkavalasu Industrial Weaver Co-operative Society, which was started in 1985 with 100 handloom weavers, was initially making bed sheets. Now, with 1,400 members, the society makes a wide range of products that are sold across the Co-optex outlets.
K.N. Subramaniam, manager of the society, says there are about 12,000 handloom weavers in Chennimalai area. Most of them are attached to co-operative societies.
At the Kalikkavalasu society, the weavers used to make fabrics with designs. Then came the use of jacquards. Now, the society is gearing up for use of electronic jacquards.
“Almost 90 % of the goods are sold to Co-optex for domestic and export markets. They develop new products regularly and give us the design and product concept a year in advance. Complicated products get better price and demand,” he says.
As the weaving society adopts new technologies, it also trains its weavers. They undergo 15 to 20 days training with stipend, Mr. Subramaniam says.
For the weavers, new designs and concepts also mean higher income. A weaver used to earn ₹150 to ₹300 a day four years ago. Now, the earning goes up to ₹700 for a skilled weaver.
Forty-seven-year-old R. Subramani started weaving at the age of 17. He works from morning to evening at the Kalikkavalasu society and says that jacquard designs have led to higher wages. With his experience in weaving, it is easy to adopt the new concepts and designs, he says.
N. Nagaraj, who was initially into agriculture, is weaving for the last two decades. He was working for a private master weaver who made bed sheets.
Five years ago, he joined the society and now makes value-added products. More youngsters will be attracted to weaving if there are training programmes, says 50-year-old Mr. Nagaraj.
Mr. Subramaniam adds that apart from awareness among consumers, awareness among weavers about handloom has also improved.
The societies nominate the works of the weavers for awards given by the government every year.
The National Handloom Day is observed on August 7 every year to honour handloom weavers and to highlight the handloom industry, says a press release from the Union Ministry of Textiles. “It seeks to focus on the contribution of handloom to the socio economic development of the country and increase the income of the weavers,” the release said.
