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"We do not have means to modernize powerlooms on our own. Government must come forward to help us," Ahmad tells IOL. |
"Welcome to the world of clatter and clang," says Aarif Ahmad, as he takes a deep puff and releases smoke in style.
The middleclass weaver owns just 13 powerlooms – a weaving machine invented by Edmund Cartwright way back in 1785 and is still in vogue in a developing country like India.
Ahmad has been in the powerloom industry ever since he was 14.
"Powerloom industry runs in my blood. I have grown up surrounded by powerlooms. It has been my playground ever since I got some sense," he declares proudly.
According to the Central Textile Ministry, Bhiwandi and Malegaon are the two most important powerloom clusters mainly controlled by the Muslim weavers.
Bhiwandi boasts of at least 5, 000,000 powerlooms while Malegaon, once known as the Manchester of Maharashtra, has approximately 1, 25,000 powerlooms.
Together the two cities constitute 32 percent of India’s total 19, 44,000 powerlooms.
But the powerloom industry of Bhiwandi and Malegaon – which only consists of plain shuttle looms – is on a downward swing.
Dependence
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| The Muslim-dominated powerloom industry of Bhiwandi and Malegaon is on a downward swing. (IOL photo) |
The entire setup of the powerloom industry is such that the weavers are in a catch-22 situation.
All raw materials needed for the industry are procured from different yarn mills located across the country.
"To facilitate the inflow of raw materials, various traders and intermediaries have sprung up thus adding to the cost of the raw materials," says Khursheed Ansari, an industry expert.
The grey-fabrics manufactured on powerlooms are semi-finished goods and require further processing.
These semi-finished goods are sold at various processing centers across the vast country.
"To facilitate this outflow, intermediaries enter in the picture again," notes the expert.
"The weak weaver with low purchasing power is always caught in this vicious cycle of exploitation. The concept of price-control mechanism does not function in Bhiwandi and Malegaon."
Weavers are heavily dependent on raw material merchants and traders for purchase and sale of their goods.
"This dependency factor breaks the backbone of weavers," bemoans Ahmad, the Muslim weaver.
Middleclass/poor weavers are literally forced to make payment within a stipulated time.
"If weavers don’t make payment within the specified period as directed by the traders, they have to pay interest on the principal amount," he notes.
Interestingly interest is mischievously called LP. i.e. Late Payment. LP is a typical Malegaon jargon.
Weaknesses
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| The powerloom industry is facing stiff resistance from an influx of cheap and high quality textile and clothing products. (IOL photo) |
One of the primary reasons for such "exploitation" is the lack of unity and competitiveness among weavers.
"But now awareness is building up that we can’t fight this battle alone; we must unite to press for fair treatment of weavers," says Ansari – the expert who recently led a delegation to India’s Planning Commission for the development of Malegaon’s textile cluster.
Dr. Rehan Ansari, a Bhiwandi resident, laments that the weaving community is not doing work on a competitive level.
"Gone are the days when Bhiwandi was known for its velvets. Weavers are focusing on quantity rather than quality," he notes.
"Millions of meters of clothes are being weaved on a daily basis but they are of the same quality. So where is the 'differentiating' factor?
S. Balaraju, Director of Textiles under Textile Commissioner of India, regrets that there is no sufficient infrastructure for the development of powerloom clusters in Bhiwandi and Malegaon.
"Ninety-five percent of weavers don’t have the investment capacity," he says.
Balaraju believes that for sustainable development the industry needs pre-weaving and post-weaving modern facility "which is not there."
As far as credit facilities are concerned, he blames financial institutions.
"The attitude of nationalized banks towards weavers in general and Muslim weavers in particular is not very pleasing."
Tanweer Fazal, who was on the Prime Minister’s High-Level Committee on minorities, is no less critical.
"Call it the darker side of globalization or sheer governmental apathy, weavers across the country are seeing the dwindling of their businesses," he insists.
He blames the problem on dearth of government orders, shortage of yarn, inadequate marketing and credit facilities and erratic power supply.
"It is this everyday brutality of deliberate state neglect and unrelenting suspicion that violates their dignity."
Unite
With the onslaught of globalization and end of the quota system in December 2004, an influx of cheap and high quality textile and clothing products are giving stiff competition to small-scale industries like powerlooms.
"Unite or perish," admonishes Prof. Abdul Majid, who has recently done his PhD on powerloom cooperative society in Malegaon.
"Small weavers must unite in order to strengthen their business capacity so that they can survive in today’s globalized world," he insists.
"Today we are living in an age of specialization. Muslim-dominated powerloom clusters like Bhiwandi and Malegaon are producing general clothing and there is no specialization as such. They must focus on specialization since their machineries are no match to foreign players."
When asked about the modern challenges, Ahmad, the Muslim weaver, looks up with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.
"We are aware of it. Modern machines cannot snatch away our skills and talents. We do not have means to modernize powerlooms on our own. Government must come forward to help us in this regard otherwise we will be compelled to sell our powerlooms as scraps."
Yet Ansari is still hopeful that they will pull through this phase.
"There is a dawn of realization among weavers that modernization is good for them. They want to end the economic bondage of greedy merchants. No community can progress unless it is economically empowered."
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