TS handloom industry hanging by a thread

Hyderabad: In the State of Telangana, the handloom industry stands as the second-largest employer, following the agriculture and allied sectors. Nevertheless, this vital workforce faces numerous challenges, including a 5 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST) burden on raw material. Further, these artisans strongly advocate for the government’s assistance in implementing health insurance policies, as they frequently grapple with skin-related ailments.

Among the various challenges we face, GST poses a significant obstacle when it comes to sourcing raw materials. This issue is particularly distressing, as it results in a substantial 20 percent reduction in our earnings, thereby detrimentally impacting our livelihoods. While there is a GST imposed on handloom products, the intermediaries fail to account for it in their transactions, leaving us to bear the financial burden, says Shekar, a weaver in Puttapaka.

In Handloom cooperative societies, the electoral process, a crucial avenue for advocating our concerns, has been dormant for the past five years. It is essential that these elections be conducted, as they can empower us to represent our issues effectively and act on our behalf, he added.

While the current Nethannaku Bima scheme has been expanded to encompass weavers in the age range of 59 to 75 years, our earnest request to the government is to allocate a monthly stipend of Rs. 25,000 to these artisans.

This request is born out of the significant challenges they face due to various skin-related ailments. Even though we have the option to seek medical assistance at the nearby Basti Dawakhanas, it is often disappointing to find that many of the necessary medications for our specific ailments are not readily available. Therefore, we fervently advocate for the thorough and efficient implementation of such a scheme, which would alleviate the financial burden on our weavers and enable them to access these benefits without hindrance, added Mudigonda Srinivas, Siddipet Handloom Weaver Cooperative Production and Sales Society Limited

While the government has extended certain opportunities to promote our handloom products, we earnestly seek an enhanced and more proactive involvement of the Telangana State Handloom Weavers' Cooperative Society Limited (TESCO) in championing our cause.

Our aspiration is for TESCO to significantly augment their procurement of our handcrafted goods, thereby affording weavers a heightened platform for marketing through a robust and direct procurement mechanism, says Yelugam Sambaiah, President Chenetha Sahakara Sangam.