Thousands of handloom factories in the country have been closed down in the last couple of years and many others are facing the same fate mainly for want of government's policy support, industry insiders said.
They said around 0.2 million units out of nearly 0.5 million handloom units in the country have been closed down and many others are on the verge of closure.
The then government in 2001, assured the handloom owners of providing cotton, dyes and chemicals at fair price along with arranging financial support with a minimum charge, but the promise was not kept up, resulting in the closure of almost all the small capital based units, they said.
Besides, absence of modern cloth processing centres also played a role behind the sorry state of the sector.
According to them, handloom is the second largest labour intensive sector for rural employment after agriculture. Over 1.5 million people are involved with the sector directly or indirectly.
Former president of Tangail Secondary Weavers' Samity, Habibur Rahman, has slammed the government for not taking any realistic step to save the weavers from their current plight.
"There is none in the country to listen to our sufferings," Mr Rahman told the FE adding that, "we have requested the government several times to ensure cotton, dyes and chemicals at fair price for the weavers or withdraw taxes on import of those, but we are yet to receive any response from the government."
Presently, importers of cotton and dyes and chemicals have to pay up to 15 per cent duties, according to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
However, high officials at the Bangladesh Handloom Board (BHB) also urged the government to ensure a sufficient amount of loans for the poor weavers so that they can procure ingredients of their products and survive.
The BHB officials expressed their dismay saying, "Whatever financial support the handloom owners are getting is not at all useful as it is paltry compared to the need."
According to BHB sources, the government in 1998 sanctioned Tk 500 million to disburse at the rate of Tk 12,000 per head among weavers as loan.
But weavers alleged that the amount does not meet their minimum requirement, which has forced them to shut down handlooms and to turn to other professions.
"The government should provide at least Tk 1,50,000 as loan to each of the handloom owners," Abdul Kadir, a handloom owner of Narsingdi area said.
Meanwhile, according to BHB officials, the board in 2009 had proposed to the ministry of finance to approve Tk 1.05 billion for the handloom sector, but the ministry declined to approve the fund.
The BHB officials informed that they have taken a set of initiatives to save the weavers and overcome the grim situation prevailing in the sector through providing various modern facilities.
"The board has initiated the BMRE (balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion) of the cloth processing centre (CPC) in Narsingdi at a cost of Tk 297.21million," a high official of BHB said.
"Besides, the board also took initiative to establish another three different types of service centres at a cost of Tk 460.52 million.
"One of them is a Service Facility Centre (SFC) in Narsingdi and the other two are Textile Facility Centres (TFCs) in Sahajadpur and Kalihati," he added.
According to BHB sources, through these centres, the board would provide washing, dyeing, calendaring, printing, finishing and some other facilities to the weavers.
The BHB high official, however, expressing his hope said, "After completion of the initiatives, the handloom sector of the country is expected to witness a visible change."
Handloom industry in dire straits for lack of govt\\\'s policy support
Badrul Ahsan | Published: August 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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