Abstract Social development 10 11 Feb 17

Role of Voluntary Organization, Government & civil society as Voice raising forums:
Handloom weaver's development
Author Dr. D K Singh Assistance Professor, Department of Sociology, BHU
Co-Author Dr. Meenakshi PDF Department of Sociology, BHU

ABSTRACT:

Social Development word denotes to quality of life of people or community in respect of basic needs .It is about improving life of people to reach their full potential with self –respect. Also it tries to ensure well –being of every person of society to reach their dreams with dignity and confidence.
The handloom sector has a unique place in the Indian economy. It has been sustained by transferring of skills from one generation to another. Handloom weaving is one of the largest economic activities in India providing large scale employment to weavers. There are historical records to show that handloom fabrics of India had established their reputation in the international market long before the historic Industrial Revolution in the West and the Indian Handloom fabrics received popular patronage and adorned regal personages,
As an economic activity, the handloom sector occupies a place second only to agriculture in terms of employment.
In this paper we will talk about handloom weavers of Banarai Saree whose art was worldwide recognized but with time it faced decay and forced them to migrate and vanish their legacy. And it cannot be ignored that it would be part of history if voluntary organizations/non-government organization started this issue to expand their grief and pain despite bearing one of the best heritage of India by our weavers. They blazed the issue to public forums regarding plight of weavers to achieve full potential .These voice forums proved helpful in getting attention of government to establish and announce various projects and schemes."
Presented paper will discuss role of Ngo's and government in raising voice for making this art alive and lead weaver's life toward dignified livelihood .
Key words: weavers, handloom, development, Government

Introduction: "In the land of saint and poet Kabir, weaving is not only mode of livelihood but more a spiritual hymn which comes out from khatter khatter of loom."
Banaras is famous for its socio-economic and religious importance all over the World. The city is equally important as a weaving center throughout the world. The weaving industry, which flourished during the Vedic period and touched its peak at the time of mogul period, explains how the act of weaving was a part of the life of the Banaras people. No doubt, Banaras remained a center of weavers in the ancient period. The famous saint Kabir who belonged to weaver community is a burning example of it. However, it seems to be quite probable that the zari and brocades revived in the Sharki period as no earlier evidence refers to such textile manufacture in Banaras.'' Benarasi saree is almost eight hundred years old tradition. A strong and diverse raw material base, cheap labor, an ever-growing domestic market and relatively better technologies are the key strengths of the Indian handloom sector that have resulted in such a pronounced prominence of this industry'2. From the early 19th century, handloom industry has been started to decline and lost its market due to industrialization.
The saree making is a cottage industry for about 1.2 million people associated directly or indirectly with the hand loom silk industry of the region around Varanasi encompassing Gorakhpur, Chandauli, Azamgarh,Mau. 10,000 shops selling Banarai Saree which is more a cottage industry for several million people.
In Varanasi there are 1 lac handloom weaver out of them roughly 40000 weavers are active.(annual report of Ministry of textiles,2015)
 The handloom sector, contrary to the general notion that its share of production has declined, however, has stabilized around 20% for the past two to three decades. At present it stands at 18.75% of the total cloth production. The major contribution of handloom sector is however in terms of providing employment to 124 lakhs people and thus stands next to agriculture. Out of this, 60% are women, 12% SC and 20% ST (Ministry of Textiles: 2001). There are 38.91 lakhs hand.

Discussion : This paper will discuss role of Ngo's and government in raising voice for making handloom weaving art alive and lead weaver's life toward dignified livelihood .And mainstream this livelihood alive .

Role of NGOs: Benarasi saris are globally renowned for their exceptionally fine quality, craftsmanship. The plight of these weavers dragged attention of many organization who worked intensively for their upliftment ,some of them addressed issue of GI ,some for yarn price and availability of market .In this series PACS created a hub of weavers to provide market and upgrade them with skills to compete with Surat's and other machine made sarees .
Handloom Master weaver who is associated with PACS program: "Each sari is different, "We do not produce in bulk so when you buy one sari you are getting a different design, different color. Every piece is unique."
He sells this sari a middle man for 9500 rupees but it will actually retail for double the price ,once middle men have added their mark ups .
PACS (Poorest Areas civil society program) is a big organization aiming to break this dependence that grass-roots weaving communities have on middle men. To do they are working with Master Weavers, including Vakar, to support them to come together in the community-owned Varanasi Weavers Hub. One is the trade card or silk card. You can use it to get silk from the government unit and you'll get it at a subsidized rate. I've also applied for the handloom mark."
"During the [Varanasi Weavers Hub] training a lot of people were called from the government department so I applied there. Government officials have to come and see the handlooms to verify and get certified. Once we have this certification we can put the handloom label on [our produce]."

A leading trade union of handloom weavers, Rashtra Cheneta Jana Samakhya (RCJS), has conducted research and found that the condition of weavers is getting worse year on year even after strong promise made by the Prime Minister. The federation demanded implementation of Handloom Act and support income of up to Rs 15,000 per month.
After agriculture, handloom sector provides jobs to around 6.5 million households which have been long ignored by every government.
A team of RCJS visited handloom weavers at Uttar Pradesh (Varanasi), Telangana (Pochampally, Ghattuppal, Bahhanna Peta), Tamil Nadu (Arani), Kerala (Balaramapuram) and Karnataka (Ilkal). This team constitutes M Mohan Rao, founder president of the RCJS, and Assan Ali Ahmed, member of the RCJS from Uttar Pradesh. The team was supported by local leaders in different states. The research mostly focused on situation of handloom and government's support mechanism to them.
The Human Welfare Association: is now a registered proprietor of the GI registration of Banaras brocade and sarees, which means that it can exercise exclusive rights to the use of GI and can prevent others from using it.
Upasana began to work with the Varanasi weaver community in 2006 and later went on to introduce a brand called "Varanasi Weavers. That has been involved in this space since 2007. It has undertaken several initiatives such as presenting the story of Varanasi weavers at international fashion shows, exposing weavers to various markets, conducting health camps for weavers, training women in the skill of weaving, traditionally only taken up by men, and organizing them into Self Help Groups (SHGs).
This project has been granted special permission by the UNESCO. Upasana has introduced Varanasi both nationally and globally, and has also brought many brands to work in the support of the weaver community.


Role of Civil Society: Viewing the decline situation of handloom, many scholars have showed their interested in find out the problem faced by the handloom industry. Narsaiah and Krishna4 studied the crisis in handloom industry. This study found that handloom industry has been facing the problem of improper financial facilities and irregular supply of yarn. As a result the raw material price increase every year and the cost of the handloom cloth has increased than the power loom Cloth.
Gurumoorthy and Rengachary (2002)15 recognized the main problems are shortage of input, poor working capital, pricing of handloom products, accumulation of huge stock and marketing of handloom products.
Mathiraj and Rajkumar16 demonstrated that the weavers of the Ramanathapuram District are facing the production related problems like short of skilled labor and instability in yarn price. He also made solution that innovative pattern of production, moderate cost, sales design and modernization of handloom can be solved the crisis situation of the handloom weavers.
Tripathy17 also endeavors to explore the problems and perspectives of handloom industry in Orissa. He pointed out that the reasons behind the crisis situation of handloom industry are 'illiteracy of the weavers, inadequate finance, procurement of raw-materials, product developments, quality control, cost control and unable to fix a stable price due to fluctuation in yarn price' etc.
Roy9 in his study made an attempt to answer for the handloom industry's problem related to productivity and competition. It was replied in the study that handloom industry can survive only with the existence of two factors one is demand for the traditional products and the other one is government policy sympathetic to handlooms. In this milieu, the present paper has tried to find out problems faced by the handloom weavers of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Role of Government:
Handloom nearly 19% of total cloth produced in the country via handloom substantially adds to export earnings.
Some of the government handloom schemes implemented for development and welfare of handlooms providing holistic and sustainable development to weavers and enhancing their products in domestic as well as in global markets are:
Government has been making various interventions.
The brief of Government interventions is as follows:
(A)Input support to weavers: (i) Access to raw material – supply of yarn through NHDC. (ii) Concessional institutional credit through banks. (iii)Skill development through training by WSCs. (iv) Design support through WSCs & professional designers engaged under NHDP & Mega Cluster Programme.
(B) Infrastructure support through cluster development – 6 mega clusters, 20 large clusters & 610 small clusters, New approach for block level CFCs with internet connectivity.
(C) Marketing and export promotion – through domestic and international exhibitions, Handloom Mark scheme, India Handloom Brand, e-commerce platform.
(D)Welfare measures – health and life insurance.
(E) Revival & comprehensive package for loan waiver, recapitalization of apex societies as well as to ensure cheap credit flow to this sector.


ENROLLMENT UNDER MAHATMA GANDHI BUNKAR BIMA YOJANA: The enrollment under MGBBY increased to 5.75 lakh weavers in 2008-09 as compared to 4.66 lakh weavers in 2007- 08. The enrollment during 2009-10 is 1.21 lakh weavers upto October, 2009.

RELEASE OF POSTAGE STAMPS: H.E. Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, the President of India, has released 4 postage stamps of Rs.5/- each on Banarasi silk, Kanchipuram sarees, Kalamkari and Apa Tani weaves on 10th Dec.2009 at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

A total of 39 Apex Weavers Cooperative Societies(AWCS), 9642 Primary Weavers Cooperative Societies(PWCS), 6310 Self Help Groups and 54226 individual weavers were found eligible as per the eligibility norms under the scheme with a total financial implication of Rs.1089.90 crore(Central Share Rs. 868.43 crore and State Share Rs. 221.46 crore).As per the norms of RRR package.
A new block level cluster approach for supporting the handloom weavers has been initiated in 9 blocks of the Varanasi. In these blocks, 9 Common Facility Centers (CFCs) have been set up having yarn depot, office with internet, pre-loom facilities like winding/warping/dyeing and work shed training for the weavers etc. It is supported by a full time technically qualified staff. Design support is provided by the Weavers' Service Centre, Varanasi and also, through a reputed private designer. Response of these CFCs has been encouraging.
Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) system of NHDC: National Handloom Development Corporation Ltd. (NHDC) is implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for its commercial activities for the benefit of handloom weavers. The ERP system will significantly benefit the weavers, who are the primary beneficiaries of the yarn supply scheme of Government of India; weavers will gain from quicker delivery of materials. It will also r

Declaration of National Handloom day: It has been decided to observe 7th August as National Handloom Day every year. Gazette Notification for the same also has been published on 29th July, 2015. The first Handloom Day was celebrated in Chennai where Hon'ble Prime Minister graced the occasion as chief guest. The Handloom National and Sant Kabir Awards were also given away to the awardees by Hon'ble Prime Minister. India Handloom Brand was also launched by Hon'ble Prime Minister on this day. The Main objective of declaring National Handloom Day is to create awareness among public in general and in younger generation in particular about importance of the sector, about our rich cultural heritage and about its contribution to socio-economic development of the handloom weavers. This step will also enhance pride of millions of weavers and at the same time it will also boost tourism.
India Handloom Brand: With a view to promote handloom industry on a sustainable basis "India Handloom" Brand was launched (by Hon'ble Prime Minister on 7th August, 2015, the first National Handloom Day) so as to 21 endorse the quality of handloom products in terms of raw material, processing, embellishment, weaving, design and other parameters besides social and environment compliance for earning the trust of costumers. The main objective of launching the brand is to ensure the production. Publicity: Brochures for the weavers/manufacturers and for the buyers have been printed and being disbursed among the stakeholders, to make awareness among the weavers and buyers respectively. Promotional Exhibition –cum –sale has been conducted at IITF, New Delhi and IIT, Roorkee for promoting the IHB products among the youth where IHB registered manufacturers/weavers participated and sold their IHB products. A promotional event has been conducted at "Mood Indigo" college festival at IIT, Mumbai where the IHB has been promoted by live demonstration of handloom weaving, ramp walk with handloom products in the fashion event, display of handloom products etc.

Linkage with Fashion: For promotion of handloom in line with fashion, a National Workshop, "Design Sutra" was organized in Bhubaneswar on 22.01.2015, participated by 15 NIFTs, private institutions, 25 Weavers' Service Centres etc.
Handloom Haat( Janpath Marketing Complex): The Handloom Haat (Janpath Marketing Complex) has been set up to provide permanent marketing infrastructure support to the handloom agencies of various States. The Handloom agencies have opened their permanent retail outlets in the complex. The Complex was inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister of State for Textiles on 9th October, 2014. Apart from the retail outlets, exhibitions are organized in the complex to provide direct marketing platform to societies and weavers from across the country. So far, sales worth more than Rs. 7.00 crore has taken place through these exhibitions. A new look is being given to the existing building. To attract footfalls, frequent exhibitions in open areas and on second floor are proposed to be organized in 2016 .

Initiatives for e-commerce in Handlooms: MOU with Flipkart was signed in August, 2014. EOI was also floated in March, 2015to invite more players. Against the EOI two responses were received. A common policy framework has been evolved to engage more players. Several responses have been received.

Integrated Textile Office Complex at IIHT, Varanasi: To provide a common service place for all stakeholders, including weavers, exporters and marketing agencies, it has been decided to set up an Integrated Textile Office Complex (ITOC) at Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT), Varanasi. The 5-floor building will have a total plinth area of 13,799 square meter.

For the 12th Plan of the Government of India (2012-17), the Comprehensive Handlooms Development Scheme (CHDC) has been formulated by integrating all the major components of the schemes of the previous plan period, such as Integrated Handlooms Development Schemes (IHDS), Marketing and Export Promotion Scheme (MEPS) and Diversified Handloom Development Scheme (DHDS). The scheme will offer support to weavers, present in clusters containing a maximum of 5,000 handlooms, that are within and outside the cooperative fold by providing raw materials, design inputs, technology improvements, marketing support through exhibitions and permanent infrastructure such as Urban Haats, marketing complexes.

In the Budget 2014-15, the Government announced setting up of Trade Facilitation Centre and Crafts Museum (TFC&CM) at Varanasi to develop and promote handloom products and carry forward the rich tradition of handlooms of Varanasi. The estimated cost of project is Rs.300 crores. The first phase of the Project consisting of Crafts Museum, Entrance Plaza and Shopping arcade has been inaugurated on 22nd December, 2016. Efforts by Government Announcement of Trade facilitation centre by PM is recent example of it .It will facilitate weavers in respect of design, skill upgradation and market for their product. Government is focusing on cluster scheme. There are 5-6 silk yarn banks in Varanasi

A trade facilitation centre and a crafts museum to develop and promote handloom products of Varanasi at the cost of Rs 50 crore. A fund of Rs 500 crore has been set aside for developing a textile mega-cluster at Varanasi and six more at Bareilly, Lucknow, Surat, Kutch, Bhagalpur and Mysore.

Conclusion: There was a time artisans of Benarasi has world fame and recognition. But it came at edge when power loom came in full existence due to big difference in cost. But due to uniqueness of handloom weave it has different identity its importance and domain but in limited. If we through light on development of weavers, contribution of civil society cannot be ignored. These societies played role of voice raising forum which lead to formulation of policies for weaver's welfare by government. There were many non-government organizations who taken the charge to advocate plight of weavers to save the vintage and heritage which still has recognition at international fashion forum. Researchers wrote about miserable condition of our weavers.

These efforts, no doubt contributed well to flag issues and create pressures on government to think. These schemes played role in keeping it alive and we can see change in life trend ,weaving trend and development of weavers' up to some extent. Value addition is taking place, Quality of handloom products is improving, more weavers are adopting full time profession. In year 2009-10 export of 1252 crore while it increased up to 2246 cr in 2015. (Source ministry of textile)
Suggestions:
Still there are loopholes which still need to be abolished like there are many schemes about which actual weavers is not aware of.
Benefits of government funds and schemes is caught by middle man, Gaddidars who is already rich and articulating group of actual artisans.
Quality efforts are still required to create more opportunities for weavers.
Accessibility to Design workshop at lower cost for weavers in their region .
Ban on Chinese yarn should be a remarkable step in achieving our aim.


Source ,Reports of ministry of textiles ,Journals ,Times news, the express,survey conducted by HWA.