Asia Times: Handloom weavers shuttle into poverty


	April 8, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Handloom weavers shuttle into poverty
By Sudharshana Gomes

COLOMBO - Ratna Amarasinghe ran a handloom factory at Ibbagamuwa, 110 kilometers from the Sri Lankan capital. Fifty women worked under her in 1975, working day and night when large orders were given. Today, there is only an old spinning wheel and bits and ends of a loom to remind Amarasinghe of the good old days of the handloom industry.

''By the mid-1980s, it had become a struggle,'' she says. ''My market was in small towns and rural areas. Suddenly, people were clamoring for imported stuff, and I decided to close down the factory. Also, many of my girls went abroad when the Middle East job market opened up.''

Once a pampered industry, Sri Lanka's handloom textiles sector is now in the doldrums due to a drop in local demand and a chronic inability to adjust itself to new trends.

In its heyday in the 1970s, the industry boasted of some 100,000 looms islandwide. Today, the number in operation has dropped to 15,000. The decline set in after 1978 when the country changed into a liberal economy, and cheap, imported textiles flooded the market.

Today, there are very few medium scale handloom factories. One is run in the suburbs of Colombo by 37-year-old R Samarakkody. He has no background in the industry. Samarakkody bought the factory from its previous owner eight years ago when the latter found that it was no longer viable. ''I have eight machines,'' said Samarakkody. ''But the market is small and I'm not thinking of expanding. On the contrary, I don't know if I can survive in the long term.''

A big problem is lack of skilled weavers. All of Samarakkody's workers are middle-aged women, and their daughters are not interested in learning their mothers' craft.

The Textile Department has established 33 training schools islandwide to train a new generation of textile weavers. The training is done free of charge, but the reception has been lukewarm at best. Most village girls now prefer to work in huge private-sector garment factories. It's backbreaking work and pay is low, but factory girls enjoy tremendous freedom, living far from home. Besides, the handloom sector now has low social status whereas the export-geared apparel industry is more ''high profile''.

During 1989-94, the handloom sector enjoyed a relative boom. A presidential decree demanded that state-owned institutions buy handloom materials for office usage. This law is now inoperative.

Demand for handwoven material - chiefly curtains, bedspreads, serviettes, towels and sarongs - now comes from a niche market consisting of the upper middle class and a small expatriate community based in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital. They are willing to pay relatively high prices for hand-woven stuff. But this is a relatively small market, and the country's current economic stagnation has slowed down the growth of an affluent upper middle class and curtailed its buying power.

The result is that the mass of weavers who produce for the traditional lower-middle class market are now reduced to perpetual poverty and, in some cases, beggary. Handloom weavers plying the country by bus and on foot, carrying their wares on their heads is a familiar sight.

Earlier, state-run textile outlets were expected to buy handlooms and thus relieve the weavers of the burden of having to sell. But such state-run ventures have proved to be unprofitable and can no longer be relied upon to support the industry.

With the current emphasis on selling or dismantling unprofitable enterprises, the government is no longer interested in the hapless handloom sector. Authorities concentrate on safeguarding the vital apparel-exports industry, and the handloom sector has been left to die a slow death on its own.

Individual handloom weavers continue to struggle in small villages all over Sri Lanka. Gunaratne Menike is one such weaver from the village of Hasalaka in the hilly central province. She is one of a handful who still continue working the old looms given to them by the state in the 1970s. She has no daughters, only a son, and says that young girls in her village are no longer interested in learning this exacting craft. Her average monthly income hovers between $40 and $50 a month.

In the suburbs of Colombo, Samarakkody's weavers earn a little more, but their lot isn't much better. The marketing remains a problem, as Samarakkody must give his produce on credit to wholesalers and then wait several months before cheques are realized.

Another problem is lack of innovative design. Samarakkody admits that his designs date from the 1970s. Asked why he doesn't experiment, he argues that it's a luxury he can't afford.

''The problem is not lack of designs or designers,'' stated one textile technologist who has worked with the handloom industry for decades. ''It's that this industry has always been too conservative. It was protected and spoon-fed during the old days, and it still can't get out of the bad habits.''

One enterprising handloom entrepreneur introduced a bold new sarong design two years ago. It was such a phenomenal success that the average income of his workers doubled. Last year, though, a flood of cheap Indonesian sarongs of similar designs knocked the bottom out of his market.

''We produce much better quality than the imported stuff," said one handloom producer. ''But imports are cheaper and people buy the cheaper stuff.''

Sri Lankan handloom produce is expensive due to two factors. The cost of production is high, and so are taxes. In a bid to meet the huge defense budget, the government has obliged all enterprises to pay a defense levy of 12.5 percent as well as the goods and services tax of 5.5 percent, adding 18 percent to the product before income tax and sales commissions.

The Textile Department is planning a pension scheme for retired weavers and is hoping to give looms a 20 percent concession for buying thread. In the foreseeable future, though, the prospects of Sri Lanka's once-proud handloom industry looks bleak.

(Inter Press Service)

back to the top

�1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

asian sex gazette