Handlooms, and the handicrafts are part and parcel of global human civilization. The two provide employment and livelihood of millions of people. In the scenario of advancing industrialization, marching for harnessing robotic and the artificial intelligence driven world, these trades have not lost relevance but continue to retain their due position in malls & markets, homes & hotels, public & corporate offices.
Handlooms constitute a vital part of generational legacy and disclose leads to history, richness & diversity of traditions and the craftsmanship of weavers concerned. The trade has travelled from one progeny to another through dissemination of knowledge and practical work on traditional adeptness and design.
It owes its health, strength & sustenance to its uniqueness, elasticity & flexibility of production, soft capital & investment requirements, logistic ease, openness to innovation, adaptability to suppliers’ demands. Handloom trade is not important just for aesthetic and economic reasons but is also linked to political and diplomatic spaces and represent symbols of countries’ identity, culture and development.
By the design and format of a handloom product is traced easily the country of its origin. Shawl and sari diplomacy were witnessed as a part of bilateral interactions and meetings between various heads/ ministers of countries.
Waking up to the importance of handlooms the Government of India launched its first ever handloom day during the year 2015. August 7th was declared as the ‘National Handloom Day’. It is observed yearly to honour the handloom weavers and 7th August 2021 has been the seventh celebration since then. The celebration tries to focus and highlight the contribution of handlooms to the socio-economic development of the country and boost the morale of weavers with increase in their income. Choosing 7thAugust has a historical background to commemorate the Swadeshi Movement which was launched on this date in 1905 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) Town Hall in West Bengal to protest against its partition by the British Government.
The aim of Movement was to revive domestic production & production process with the objective of promoting home and hand-made goods to live independent of foreign hand & help. The Central Government has been following a policy of promoting and encouraging the handloom sector through a number of programmes and schemes. Due to the incessant & numerous policy initiatives and schemes interventions like marketing initiative & welfare measures the handloom sector has registered up-scale growth with increased earnings of the weavers. Resultantly handloom sector contributes to nearly 15 percent of the cloth production and also strengthens foreign exchange with export earnings. After agriculture, handloom is one of the largest economy absorbers providing employment directly or indirectly to more than 43 lakh weavers and allied workers. It is said that 95 percent of world’s handloom woven fabric comes from India. Every year 20 national awards and 20 merit certificates are given to weavers having made outstanding contribution to the trade. The national award consists of a certificate, a copper plaque and cash award of one lakh rupees. The national certificate consists of a certificate and a cash award of Rs.50,000.
Likewise after agriculture, handloom sector has been the second most important and a major traditional source of employment for a considerable part of workforce in J & K, especially to weavers and the artisans. Due to variety of habitats J & K is home to a number of arts and crafts with no parallels. With this elastic employment and civilisational background Jammu & Kashmir has its age old Department of Handlooms followed by the J & K State Handloom Development Corporation Limited established during the year 1981 exclusively to work for the promotion of decentralized handloom sector and to execute the implementation of centrally sponsored handloom projects kick-started by the central government.
The two have analogous functions and objectives. The state’s traditional handloom weaving has since centuries earned a name in the world. It is a huge, labour intensive cottage industry with the imported or indigenously available raw materials for silk, wool, pashmina; products ranging between wearing un-sewn stoles/ shawls and finished sewn garments like coats, waistcoats, pherans besides the ever increasing number of cute design inventions carved out by the local craftsmen and the artisans.
The two institutions have played, and are playing, crucial role in modernization of handloom sector through skill-up-gradation of weavers by providing modernised looms, designing & weaving. They help, aid, counsel, promote and protect the handloom. They assist the weavers in capital formation , credit facilitation, the technical/the managerial guidance enabling them to improve /develop efficient methods of management, manufacture, production and marketability. They establish/maintain showrooms, retail outlets, trade centres facilitating the opportunities for increasing the sales, undertake to procure/distribute the raw materials, establish/manage training centres to equip the weavers /the artisans with novelties in trade & industry.
They arrange and participate in inter-state and intra-state trade fairs to showcase the artistic skills of the artisans, encourage their zeal and increase their sales besides promoting traditional art and cultural values. Arrange buyer/seller interactions to let the concerned judge & have insight into the products range, qualitative standards and the mutually benefiting interests.
Facilitate observe the magnitude of current & the probable demand, trend setting and prospective plan for the future demand /supply expansion and equilibrium. There is a network of common facility centres also to reach out to handloom weavers at their doorstep with assistance facilities to help them reap the advantages of the scheme for their upliftment. To see the two institutions sustain, and thrive, an uninterrupted and sufficient amount of timely financial support is needed.
This can motivate them to act, encourage & strengthen the existing human resources. The need of the hour is to rise to the occasion of nation building. Hard work, honesty and skill make the key to unlock things, and build real wealth in the world. The currency note is a promissory note for value in exchange for transfer of the wealth. The locals in particular have the inescapable moral obligation and the economic imperative to make this joint venture a shock-absorber.
The Diaspora is required to represent as brand ambassadors by using and wearing their motherland products to the extent possible. It is heartening to know that in realization of the importance of these sectors the government of Jammu and Kashmir, in a significant development, has vide Government Order No. 161-IND of 2021 dated 16-8-2021 accorded sanction to the roll out of Karkhandar Scheme for revival of dying crafts to be implemented through the respective Directorates of Handicrafts and the Handloom. The main thrust of the scheme shall be to identify and impart skill up-gradation, training in such crafts like walnut wood carving, silver filigree, khatamband, paper machie and kani shawl weaving crafts. The scheme is expected to heal hands & hearts.
The author is a former Sr. Audit Officer and Consultant in the A.G’s Office Srinagar.