Giving supports to the handloom sector
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Enayet Rasul
It is regrettable that a sector which has a major role in the lives of mass people in the country - the handloom sector - is a relatively neglected one. The figures suggest that the total demand for fabrics in the country is about 1676 million metres. Out of this demand, 63 per cent or 800 million metres are produced by the local handloom operators who make clothes used by common people in their every day life such as saris, lungis, gamchas, etc. Handloom industry is found to be next only to agriculture in creating employment in the rural areas. More than 10 million people are linked directly or indirectly with it.
However, press reports continue to focus on the growing difficulties faced by handloom operators in different part of the country. One such report recently focused on the distressed conditions of handlooms operators at Sirajganj and Pabna. The report highlighted that once upon a time Sirajganj and Pabna were famous for their handloom products. There were some 25,000 weaver families in these areas. But the number of the weaver families has dwindled down to only 8,000. This scene of the distressed conditions in the handloom industry here is a representative one of the situation in other areas of the country as well. Another report informed that nearly 70 per cent of the handlooms have closed down in the Narsingdi district. This region, which earned the name of Manchester of Bangladesh for its handloom textiles , is now but a shadow of its once golden past. Over 0.1 million looms have closed down in this district over the last thirty-five years throwing over 80,000 weavers into unemployment.
But the handloom sector can be quickly uplifted in every way to create jobs at the grassroots level where the same are badly needed. Besides, the handloom products can be a source of substantial foreign currency earnings. There is considerable scope for greater utilisation of the fabrics produced by the handloom sector in the export oriented ready-made garments (RMG) industries. Fabrics from the handlooms are already helping vital value-addition in the RMG industries and this process can accelerate with more assistance channelled to the handloom operators. Fabrics known as Grameen Check, Dhaka Check and Aarong Check are being produced by the handloom sector and used in the RMG industries. There used to be import dependence for such fabrics in the past. Skull caps, lungis, gamchas, bedsheets, bedcovers, etc., produced by the handloom sector are also being exported directly to some Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries. The handloom sector has a great deal of potential for further value addition in the RMG sector, for further meeting local needs of fabrics and expanding sales of its products directly in foreign countries. But at the moment, this is a neglected sector and reports appeared sometime ago that 37.6 per cent of the handlooms are not operational.
This stagnation in the handlooms sector calls for more focused attention to its problems in view of its all round prospects. Apart from its possibilities of greater foreign currency earnings, it can be a source of expanding employment in rural areas where unemployment is a big problem. Handloom workers are generally poor and this sector's vitality can lead to improvement in the earnings of workers on a large scale --who are at the fringes of social existence -- by alleviating their poverty. Rural women are hard pressed to find suitable and gainful employment. The expanding handloom sector can be a source of such employment for them.
The main problem of the handloom sector is one of credit. Institutional credits can hardly be accessed by most of them. Whatever credits are available to the handloom sector are considered to be not so useful for the weavers who are required to service their debts regularly with high interests rates under a monthly payment system. Clearly, the interest rate needs to be scaled down adequately and the mode of repayment should be also made flexible together with substantial increases in the total amount of credits to be disbursed among a much bigger number of borrowers to make a positive impact .The black marketing of imported fabrics of the RMG sector in the local market and the smuggling in of Indian handloom products also create undue competition for the local handloom sector. Policies and actions from the government are required to deal effectively with these problems. The syndicates which arm twist the handloom operators to buy yarn, dyes and chemicals at soaring prices, must be smashed and the weavers enabled to get their production materials at fair prices.
The handlooms in some places of the country were badly hit by the recent floods. Specially in the Sirajganj district where there is a specially heavy concentration of handloom industries, damages have been very great. Handloom operators in other places of the country suffered the same consequences from the flood and the total losses to the sector from the calamity are considered to be crushing for those engaged in it.
Therefore, the first requirement would be a prompt assessment of the number of handloom enterprises which have been so devastated by the flood. As soon as this exercise is completed, the flood afflicted handloom operators should be aided generously for their recovery. In many cases, they will need start-up capital to replace useless machinery and to buy yarn, dyes and other things. In other cases, the requirements would be less. Some would be sufficiently helped with the providing of working capital on easy terms. In every case, the affected ones should be helped in proportion to need but adequately. This would hasten the vital recovery in this sector which has the potential to generate employment and income extensively at the grass roots level where the flood created havoc. Aiding the handloom sector towards the fastest recovery will mean succeeding in large measure in the overall flood recovery programme that aims to help the poor and distressed ones in great number to resume normal life.
It is regrettable that a sector which has a major role in the lives of mass people in the country - the handloom sector - is a relatively neglected one. The figures suggest that the total demand for fabrics in the country is about 1676 million metres. Out of this demand, 63 per cent or 800 million metres are produced by the local handloom operators who make clothes used by common people in their every day life such as saris, lungis, gamchas, etc. Handloom industry is found to be next only to agriculture in creating employment in the rural areas. More than 10 million people are linked directly or indirectly with it.
However, press reports continue to focus on the growing difficulties faced by handloom operators in different part of the country. One such report recently focused on the distressed conditions of handlooms operators at Sirajganj and Pabna. The report highlighted that once upon a time Sirajganj and Pabna were famous for their handloom products. There were some 25,000 weaver families in these areas. But the number of the weaver families has dwindled down to only 8,000. This scene of the distressed conditions in the handloom industry here is a representative one of the situation in other areas of the country as well. Another report informed that nearly 70 per cent of the handlooms have closed down in the Narsingdi district. This region, which earned the name of Manchester of Bangladesh for its handloom textiles , is now but a shadow of its once golden past. Over 0.1 million looms have closed down in this district over the last thirty-five years throwing over 80,000 weavers into unemployment.
But the handloom sector can be quickly uplifted in every way to create jobs at the grassroots level where the same are badly needed. Besides, the handloom products can be a source of substantial foreign currency earnings. There is considerable scope for greater utilisation of the fabrics produced by the handloom sector in the export oriented ready-made garments (RMG) industries. Fabrics from the handlooms are already helping vital value-addition in the RMG industries and this process can accelerate with more assistance channelled to the handloom operators. Fabrics known as Grameen Check, Dhaka Check and Aarong Check are being produced by the handloom sector and used in the RMG industries. There used to be import dependence for such fabrics in the past. Skull caps, lungis, gamchas, bedsheets, bedcovers, etc., produced by the handloom sector are also being exported directly to some Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries. The handloom sector has a great deal of potential for further value addition in the RMG sector, for further meeting local needs of fabrics and expanding sales of its products directly in foreign countries. But at the moment, this is a neglected sector and reports appeared sometime ago that 37.6 per cent of the handlooms are not operational.
This stagnation in the handlooms sector calls for more focused attention to its problems in view of its all round prospects. Apart from its possibilities of greater foreign currency earnings, it can be a source of expanding employment in rural areas where unemployment is a big problem. Handloom workers are generally poor and this sector's vitality can lead to improvement in the earnings of workers on a large scale --who are at the fringes of social existence -- by alleviating their poverty. Rural women are hard pressed to find suitable and gainful employment. The expanding handloom sector can be a source of such employment for them.
The main problem of the handloom sector is one of credit. Institutional credits can hardly be accessed by most of them. Whatever credits are available to the handloom sector are considered to be not so useful for the weavers who are required to service their debts regularly with high interests rates under a monthly payment system. Clearly, the interest rate needs to be scaled down adequately and the mode of repayment should be also made flexible together with substantial increases in the total amount of credits to be disbursed among a much bigger number of borrowers to make a positive impact .The black marketing of imported fabrics of the RMG sector in the local market and the smuggling in of Indian handloom products also create undue competition for the local handloom sector. Policies and actions from the government are required to deal effectively with these problems. The syndicates which arm twist the handloom operators to buy yarn, dyes and chemicals at soaring prices, must be smashed and the weavers enabled to get their production materials at fair prices.
The handlooms in some places of the country were badly hit by the recent floods. Specially in the Sirajganj district where there is a specially heavy concentration of handloom industries, damages have been very great. Handloom operators in other places of the country suffered the same consequences from the flood and the total losses to the sector from the calamity are considered to be crushing for those engaged in it.
Therefore, the first requirement would be a prompt assessment of the number of handloom enterprises which have been so devastated by the flood. As soon as this exercise is completed, the flood afflicted handloom operators should be aided generously for their recovery. In many cases, they will need start-up capital to replace useless machinery and to buy yarn, dyes and other things. In other cases, the requirements would be less. Some would be sufficiently helped with the providing of working capital on easy terms. In every case, the affected ones should be helped in proportion to need but adequately. This would hasten the vital recovery in this sector which has the potential to generate employment and income extensively at the grass roots level where the flood created havoc. Aiding the handloom sector towards the fastest recovery will mean succeeding in large measure in the overall flood recovery programme that aims to help the poor and distressed ones in great number to resume normal life.