Vijayawada: The crisis-hit handloom weavers’ sector was shell shocked with poor allocations in the state budget. Several lakhs of handloom weavers have been struggling to manage both ends meet for the past several decades due to the unscientific approach of successive govts to revive the handloom sector.
The demands of the handloom weavers fell on deaf ears of policy makers resulting in severe crisis in the families dependent on handloom weaving. “Ironically, govts are not moved even by spate of suicides committed by the weavers,” said president of National Handlooms and Handicrafts Federation (NHHF) Macharla Mohan Rao.
He felt that the recent state budget has thorough disappointed the handloom weavers as it had no specific allocations for the uplift of the weavers.
Mohan Rao said that handloom sector got a shocking sum of Rs.193 crore which just 0.066% of state budget of ₹2,94,427.25 crore. Handloom sector got just 4.4% percent of the allocation made for industries and commerce department ₹4,371.42 crore.
“This reveals the coalition govt’s hollow promises towards the handloom sector,” said Rao.
Weavers fear that the poor budgetary allocations will only deepen the crisis in the handloom industry as millions of poor handloom families are struggling with financial difficulties due to lack of enough work.
“They have already drowned in debts and resorting to suicides,” said Rashtra Chenetha Jana Samakhya (RCJS) state president Devena Veera Nageswara Rao and secretary Gunturu Mallikharjuna Rao.
He said that weavers shifted loyalties to NDA despite getting direct financial assistance to the tune of Rs.24,000 per year under the YSRCP regime under Nethanna Hastham scheme, with a hope to get more support from the alliance partners to revive the entire sector.
He said that TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu had stated that the suicides of handloom workers were result of YSRCP govt’s policies and they would change their fortunes.
Telugu Nadu Handloom Workers Union, affiliated to TDP had also demanded that the Nethanna Nestham scheme be extended not only to handloom workers but also to other vocational groups, he recalled.
“However, the coalition govt dealt a deadly blow to the handloom sector as no significant allocation for the handloom sector was made in the budget,” said Mohan Rao.
He said that the previous govt promised ₹10 crore for a health insurance scheme while the present govt ignored even such a crucial scheme.
