Like in Badanavalu, the economy of many Karnataka villages still depends on the industry of its handloom weavers who are now worried that the government is mulling a policy shift that might sound the death knell to their traditional occupation. The Ministry of Textiles is looking into a memorandum submitted by power loom owners to ease provisions in the Handloom Reservation Act of 1985 that allow only handloom weavers to make certain textile products. The original list of 22 handloom-only items had been whittled down over the years to 11 items, including pure silk saris, dhotis, lungis and towels. It's an open secret in the textile business that power loom weavers manufacture these reserved products and pass them off as handloom. Now power looms owners are seeking further de-reservation so that they can legitimately get into the lucrative business of making traditional saris and lungis.
It’s bad enough that the Handloom Reservation Act has not been enforced properly in 30 years of its existence, forcing many weavers to look for other jobs, complained Sivasankara Murali, a weaver from Mahalingapura in the north Karnataka district of Bagalkote. He has worked 40 years at his handloom. He started when he was just 14 years old. He feels like he was born into the profession. “If the Act had been enforced then there would be enough work," he said. "There would be a market and value for our products."
Murali added: “In Mahalingpura in the last ten years, you can say that about 85% weavers have moved into other jobs. If this Act is enforced then maybe not all 85% will come back, but at least 50% will come back.”
Nagamma at her loom at the Badanavalu Khadi and Gramodyog Centre.
Murali is among of hundreds of weavers who have come to Badanavalu over the last fortnight. The village became famous in 1932 when Mahatma Gandhi visited it and is now again clawing its way into prominence by becoming a site of a new satyagraha.
Since the beginning of the year, handloom weavers across Karnataka have undertaken various forms of protest against what they perceive to be the government’s preference for power looms. Led by Heggodu Prasanna, theatre personality and convener of and organisation to promote handlooms called Charaka, they have taken part in special panchayats and padayatras across the state. On Sunday, they all gathered in Badanavalu to discuss the importance of handlooms and the ecosystem of agriculture and sustainable living in villages that goes with it.
Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Badanavalu in 1932 made the village famous for its work with khadi.
“Our fathers were weavers, we are weavers, but our children are not,” said Vishwanath Kenchi, from Karntaka’s weaving capital Gajendragad in Gadag district. “People ask for handloom products with love. There is demand but we are not able to meet that demand of the consumer.”
A handloom Ilkal sari takes two or three days to weave on the handloom, Kenchi explained, while on a power loom and three or four Ilkals can be made in the same time. While a handloom Ilkal sells for Rs 1,000, a power loom Ilkal will fetch about Rs 800. This tempts power loom weavers to pass their products off as handloom, taking advantage of both the lower cost of production and the higher price tag they carry.
The handloom weavers are also fighting for the art and precision of their work. “In handloom the designs come from the mind of the weaver,” said MM Kulkarni, also from Gajendragad. “Designs are made on the power loom with 400 or 800 or 1,200 hooks. A handloom weaver would make those kinds of designs with just 24 hooks. In textile mills they bring power looms from Japan and other places, then they bring in some B.Tech engineer to give us designs from a computer and expect that to keep up the traditional art form.”
When asked whether, given the opportunity, they would switch to using power looms, the three weavers responded with and immediate and emphatic “No!”
The power loom debt trap
They have seen many handloom workers shift to power looms, tempted by the promise of making cloth at a push of a button and higher production. They have seen many fall into debt. “ You need only Rs 2,000–Rs 5,000 for a small handloom and Rs 15,000 for frame loom," Kenchi said. "A power loom costs up to Rs 1 lakh. To get the power loom up and running you need another Rs 10 lakhs. For that you need to take a loan and service that loan.” The spectre of unreliable electricity supply continues to haunt power loom workers.
Organisations like Charaka and its handloom store Desi are midwifing a handloom revival in the country to help the 43 lakh handloom weavers across India. “Everybody knows that if this Handloom Reservation Act is removed, within a year all our handlooms will die,” said Prasanna. “That is how handlooms died in the rest of the world. Now 90% of handlooms remain in India and that is because of this Act.”
Handloom weavers Sivashankar Murali and MM Kulkarni at the Badanavalu satyagraha.
Uzra Bilgrami, founder of Dastkar Andhra and Malkha Marketing Trust that promote cotton handlooms, said that the handloom sector has been shrinking but could bounce back since it is a "5,000-year old industry". Easing provisions that protect handlooms, however, could be a death-blow. “Handloom weaving is not demanding any kind of charity," she said. "They are demanding some sort of brand protection and the Handloom Reservation Act is brand protection for the handloom industry.”
Said Murali: “If the existing restrictions on the Act are lifted then nothing will left of this sector.” The weavers have placed their demands before the textile minister and the Chief Minster of Karnataka. They have been promised action but haven’t seen any.
Kenchi wonders what they can possibly do next. " We have finished protest marches, we have finished satyagrahas, we have made demands, we have heard assurances, we have sometimes quietly lived our lives, we have sometimes come out in protest and nothing has happened," he said. "What do we do now? Who do we go to?”
Video: Handloom weaver in Badanavalu who works 8-10 hours a day and takes home about Rs 150.