Even as the Central government and Khadi Village and Industries Commission have been investing heavily on protecting and promoting Khadi, a Khadi handloom weaver at Chinnalapatti in the district, who won ‘National Best Khadi Weaver’ award for 2013-14, has been languishing for survival as neither the State government nor the Central government schemes meant for weavers have reached him.
The only recognition to his 50 years of service is a cash award of Rs. 25,000 and a medal from the Central government and nothing else. Now, he has been running from pillar to post for a monthly pension.
All State government schemes – pension, housing, medical assistance, free power and subsidy for loom and loom shed that have been enjoyed by handloom weavers – had been denied to him. The only reason is that he had been weaving Khadi items and not handloom items.
Born in a traditional weavers’ family, S. Rangasamy (63) of Chinnalapatti took up weaving as career at the age of 11. He had been producing Khadi items for Khadi Village Industries, a sister concern of Gandhigram Trust, for the past five decades.
While his counterparts at Chinnalapatti stuck to State-run handloom weavers’ cooperatives societies, Mr. Rangasamy devoted his career only to Khadi weaving, following in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi.
“My wage at early stage was ‘oru ana’ (six paise) per metre. In 1972, I had received 10 anna for weaving a Khadi towel,” he says.
The last drawn wage of his family was around Rs. 1,000 a week. To earn this amount, both Mr. Rangasamy and his had to work for 12 to 14 hours a day. His monthly income had never touched Rs. 6,000 till the last day of work.
The national award winner is not the only person struggling for survival. Like him, hundreds of Khadi wavers, including S. Soundaiah, T.V. Jaya Anandhan and P. Mani of Chettiapatti, have been facing the similar fate.
“We had followed in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and promoted Khadi weaving. We thought it was a boon. Unfortunately, it became a bane,” they said.
They appealed to the State government to extend incentives and benefits enjoyed by handloom weavers to Khadi weavers too.
