Limbering up Handloom Sector is the need of the hour

The reposition of India’s handloom sector has become ever so neccessary at present times. For a long time the sector has been struggling to become a part of mainstream economic activities and has bee treated with the element of pity. Recently Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research & Analysis under the aegis of IIM Shillong today hosted an e-symposium on Handloom Sector in which Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani articulated, “Today when sustainability has become the buzzword not only for manufacturers, buying agents, and international chains that can leverage the handloom opportunity, there has to be a more systemic approach on how to make handlooms a better business opportunity given the semblance of pride in the handloom legacy of our country, particularly the northeast as livelihood of natives largely depends upon the handloom here.”

She went on saying, “How can we break that system and encourage the individual weaver or set of weavers to come together and form producer companies for which we need more and more research which can build credibility to such outreach programs.”

As the pandemic has pushed the economy to the wall, and states have seen the migration of huge workers, a lot of workers who were earning their keep in various states have lost their means of earning, hence emboldening the handloom sector has become the need of the hour under current circumstances.