More than 3000 weavers families dependent on the Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation (KHDC) for the raw material to spin the cloths are facing trouble due to lack of work because of the non-supply of the required quantity of the sizing beams of cotton and poly yarn.
“Our handlooms have been silent for the past eight months with the KHDC not providing us the required quantity of the sizing beams of cotton and poly yarns. We do not know any other work but weaving and do not know what else to do to make a living…” said Siddaruda Sanagundi, member of the advisory committee of the KHDC at the district and divisional level.
The weavers are mostly located in Madanhipparga, Hirolli, Aland town, Suntanur, Yelasangi, Nimbarga, Battarga, Kamanalli, Bhimapur and surrounding villages and many are now planning to migrate to weaving centres like Ichalkaranji, Bhiwandi and others in Maharashtra due to the indifferent attitude of the KHDC. 70 per cent of the handloom weavers in Kalaburagi are women.
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The weavers without any protective social security cover or family insurance cover lead a life of uncertainty. These families which are prone to Tuberculosis attack and other respiratory diseases due to their working conditions are not covered under any insurance schemes including ‘Yeshashwini’ or the ‘Rashtriya Swasta Bhima Yojna’.
Trade union leader Chandrasekhar Hiremath, who had taken up the cause of the weavers in the past and leading the weavers from the front now, told presspersons in Kalaburagi on Thursday that the two yarn manufacturing units at Aland town in Kalaburagi and Shahapur in Yadgir district have stopped work as the KHDC stopped supplying the raw material – cotton and polyster — for producing the yarn to be supplied to the weavers.
Mr. Hiremath said that the government should intervene in the issue immediately and ensure that the KHDC provided enough raw materials to produce the required yarn and initiate steps to provide funding for upgrading the handloom units of the weavers to the powerloom.
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He said that the present policy of providing 50 per cent subsidy for upgrading handloom to powerloom was only in papers and majority of the weavers who shifted over to powerloom by taking loans from the banks have not been provided the promised subsidy even after two years. Many of the powerloom units which have been established in Aland have been producing cotton and polyster cloths for the mills in Inchalkaranji and Bhiwandi and other centres in Maharashtra due to the non supply of yarn.
Mr. Hiremath said that he had already apprised the problems encountered by the weavers to the Textile Minister, Baburao Chinchansur over phone and gave an ultimatum to solve all the problems of the weavers within ten days. “If the problems of the weavers is not settled by then, the weavers would begin an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Deputy Commissioners office in Kalaburagi from January 6.”