Handloom industry

There are 470 Handloom clusters spread in all over the country in highly decentralized manner. Indian handloom industry is the largest in the world and it is low capital intensive industry Indian Handloom Sector an Overview Providing direct and indirect employment to more than 30 lack weavers, handloom sector is the largest economic activity second only to agriculture in India.

Despite the presence of the powerless sector in a big way along with all its advantages, the manhood sector has been able to withstand the competition. It has also proved its indispensability on certain fronts. Wave of ethnic revivalism and effective state intervention through financial assistance and implementation of various developmental schemes have brought about more than tenfold increase in the production of handloom fabrics. This sector contributes nearly 23% of the total cloth produced in the country. During the year 1996-97, a total production of 7235 million sq. Meters of cloth was achieved.

The Handloom Act passed by the parliament in 1985 aims to shield handloom avers against powerless and textile mill operators by reserving certain textile articles (presently eleven in number) for exclusive production by handloom. Some major promotional & developmental programmed formulated by the office of the Development Commissioner for Handloom relate to (a) input support (b) employment generation programmed (c) modernization and upgrading oftechnology(d) market support (e) welfare measures (f) publicity. In all the schemes emphasis has been laid on assisting handloom weavers directly, including upgrading of their skills etc.

Handloom are a part of Indian heritage, they exemplify the richness and diversity ofcultureand thence the artistry of the weavers. Conceptualization of the Problems exist with other two sectors, namely unrecognized power loom sector and organized mill sector. If we look at globally, due to the huge competition of these two sectors, many developed countries gave up the handloom industry, and there are no handloom exist at present in many of the countries. In India also, number of handloom in different clusters is decreasing day by day. In the last fifteen years it has come down to 43. 32 lakes from 65.