The Tamil Nadu state government plans to set up 10 mini handloom textile parks to boost its handloom industry. The parks will be established across the state to provide sustainable employment opportunities.
Each of the planned textile parks is set to house between 100 and 150 handloom weavers as well as a market expert, ET Bureau reported. The state government plans to open the units in locations including Jayankondam, Coimbatore, Kancheepuram, and Gudiyatham and each establishment will form a special purpose vehicle.
The mini handloom parks will produce textile products in line with consumer and business demand and this will be assessed by the market expert. The units will focus on positioning handloom products as desirable to mass markets, expanded from their current niche market appeal, to increase sales and uplift the industry and its workers.
Tamil Nadu counts approximately 2.2 lakh handloom workers and the state is ranked third in India for its handloom industry following Assam and West Bengal. However, the industry has dwindled in recent years as workers are finding it increasingly difficult to earn a living from the trade, something the government aims to counter with its new scheme.
“If there were 50 looms earlier on a street in our town, it is now down to four,” said Gudiyatham-based weaver come trader Govindarajan, TNN reported. “It is the elders who are still in the trade; youngsters have moved out to Tirupur or for other jobs. It will take a week for an entire family to set the looms and weave four ‘lungis’, fetching Rs 1,000. But the same set of people could collectively earn Rs 10,000 in Tirupur. Handloom is no longer remunerative.”
