Hyderabad: Government move a big blow to handloom sector

Hyderabad: The thread that kept the weaver community in touch with the Ministry of Textiles is now broken once in for all. In a rude jolt just a day before the community celebrates National Handloom Day on August 7 as a reminder of the 1905 Swadeshi movement that started in Calcutta (As Kolkata was called then) in 1905, the shocker in a form of a Government of India Gazette notification for the abolition of the All India Handloom Board (AIHB) has left the community in despair.

"Ironical it is that the Government that talks about atma nirbhar (self-reliance) and swears by Swadeshi has decided to abolish the AIHB," said Dr D Narasimha Reddy, Public Policy reviewer who has been closely associated with the weaver community in Telangana.

A former member of the AIHB, Yadagiri Tadaka, now member of the Steering Committee, National Federation of handlooms and Handicrafts says, "It is a sad day for the community. There would be no voice and no one would be even allowed into the offices in New Delhi."

Veraiah, a weaver in L B Nagar has been struggling to make ends meet due to the slump in the market says, "The board was the only window to vent our feeling." Narasimha Reddy says, "The reason cited is minimum government and maximum governance. Leaner government machinery cannot be translated into 'clean' everything that enables connection between people and government. Handloom sector turnover is a whopping Rs.1,00,000 crores, far above many of the industrial sectors such as cement and agrochemicals."