The Telangana government has been considering the option of State-owned enterprises like the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) and Singareni Collieries procuring dress material for their employees from the powerloom weavers of Sircilla.
The initiative is aimed at mitigating the plight of weavers who have been incurring losses due to rise in production cost which in turn has made them incapable of competing with the owners of modern mills.
IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who represents the Sircilla Assembly constituency, is holding discussions with the managements of the two organisations and also with the authorities of school education and Integrated Child Development Services in this regard.
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The Minister wants to know whether they will be able to procure the required dress material directly from the weavers without resorting to tendering process, if they supplied good quality cloth at a marginal profit.
He feels that Sircilla weavers will not stand a chance if the material is procured through tendering process as they will not be able to compete with large textile mills which have been participating in the tenders for years.
The textile town of Sircilla in Karimnagar district currently has 36,030 powerlooms, which are engaged in the production of polyester cloth, casement cloth, towels, shirtings, sarees and other material.
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The weavers were in doldrums ever since the Centre removed powerlooms from the small-scale sector as part of its post 1990 liberalisation policies. Rising cost of raw material and power added to their woes.
Consequently, several weavers in Sircilla, who plunged into a deep financial crisis, have reportedly committed suicide in the past two decades. According to official estimates, as many as 430 weavers committed suicide from April 1, 1997 till date. Of these, 22 are stated to be handloom weavers.
Besides extending an ex gratia package to the families of those who committed suicide, the State government has taken various measures to improve their economic condition.
These included provision of 50 per cent subsidy on power tariff, establishment of a trust fund to provide financial assistance to the distressed families, setting up of a corpus fund for undertaking skill development programmes, creation of a textile park to provide employment and introduction of a loan weaver scheme.
The Minister, however, told The Hindu that “a lot more has to be done” to eradicate poverty among weavers.