Hyderabad: City weavers caught in the web of distress

Hyderabad: With the buyers getting repelled by high prices, the handloom weavers in the city are once again struggling to sell their products. With this, the members of the Handloom Weavers Society have requested the State government to provide them a platform where they could sell their stock directly to the customers. They pointed out that though they were slowly coming out from the pandemic blues, the increase in cost of raw silk material has hit them hard resulting in sharp decline in demand for the finished products.

There are more than 5,000 handloom weavers in the city, and many are planning to shift to other jobs, they said. "Before Covid-19, we used to get raw silk material at Rs 2,500 from China and Bangalore. But with the ban on import of Chinese silk, Bangalore has become the only source where the prices have been now doubled.

As a result, we are forced to hike the prices of handloom products. But this is resulting in no buyers. We urge the State government to provide a proper platform where we can directly sell our products without the involvement of third party," said Venkatesh Mena, a weaver from Boduppal. "The hike in raw materials has become a bane for us.

Though the State government recently launched Thrift Fund Saving and Security Scheme (TFSSS), it is only benefiting a few weavers," said Cherku Swamy, member of Handloom Weaver Society, LB Nagar, requesting the government to bail them out. "The stock is piling up as there are no buyers. Before pandemic, we could sell our products at various events. But in the last two years, no such event has been organised. Further, the high prices are keeping the buyers away. ," said V Sudarshan, another weaver.