‘Haven’t got any income for 50 days’

We do not know how to bounce back, say handloom weavers of Madurai

Weavers from Madurai who are solely dependent on weaving handlooms for a living say that they haven’t gotten any income for 50 days. With difficulty in transportation of material needed to create a sari - like zari and thread and the lack of buyers, many weavers say that they do not know how to bounce back. Although a handful have begun work on Monday, most have no place to buy material or sell finished goods.

M. H. Lakshmanan is a prominent weaver from his community in Nilayur, an area with around 2,000 weavers who make handlooms. He says that when the lockdown began, weavers used all their existing supply to make as many sarees as they could. Their stocks lasted exactly for 10 days. After that, they had nothing to work with. Despite having created good quality products in the first 10 days, Mr. Lakshmanan says that they had no place to sell their wares.

"Suppliers have not been able to transport thread spools or zari from Surat and parts of Karnataka. Managers of textile companies who usually sell our products in North India too have not been able to sell any of our saris too," he says.

He adds that their monthly income of around ₹ 7,500 is completely lost.

K.R. Ramkumar, the manager of Madurai’s Thiruvalluvar Weaver Co-optex Society, says that only a handful have backing and local market on Friday.

There are weaving families in Nialyur, Vandiyur, Kadachanendal, Sakkimangalam and Tirunagar who are all dependent on this profession and have been coming regularly to him work, he says.

“I do not know how to answer them,” he says.

Mr. Lakshmanan says that the State government has provided ₹ 1,000 as relief to weavers through their board - the Tamil Nadu Handlooms and Handlooms Silk Weaving Workers Welfare Board. However, only 40% of workers have received this amount, according to members from the Kaithari Nagar Ikkiya Sangam, he says.

“We entered the profession because we had skill. Now, there is no use for this skill and other organisations are unwilling to employ us because of the economic climate. I can only hope that all this changes soon,” he says.