As the small textile industry owners have gradually stopped giving the raw materials for making lungis, small weaving factories are being forced to close.
More than 10000 workers’ lifeline has been put to question.
Lungis & handkerchiefs are manufactured at the weaving centres in the villages Gururajapuram, Valarpuram, Minnal, and Sampathrayanpettai in Arkonam circle.
Popular brands of textile manufacturers buy them, put their labels and sell it in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Singapore, Bhutan, and other foreign countries.
However, this industry is now facing a very lean period. On one side, the habit of wearing lungis has been replaced by using pants or night-pants. There is a shortage of employees as well because of the low wages.
The weavers procure their raw materials like thread, etc from small scale textile traders and make lungid getting paid by the length of cloth made.
The sales of lunges have declined over the last 1 year. Unsold stock mounted. Hence the wages were reduced. However, the weavers continue working as it is their traditional job. This situation arose when they actually demanded higher wages.
They went on strike last year. After government intervention, small scale textile traders promised not to reduce wages.
At the same time, they reduced supplying raw materials. Only one out of every 3 weaver gets the raw material. The explanation for this has been ‘no stock’. Hence, some of the weaving centres had to be closed.
In Gururajapettai, there were 1730 weaving centres where 3000 looms were in operation. Now, 900 weaving centres have been closed.
6 people were employed in 1 weaving centre. Now, 1500 employees have been rendered jobless. They have looked for new jobs.
3 weavers were desperate & committed suicide.
People who had their own looms in their houses have now been forced to send their children for jobs.
The employees fervently hope that the government should intervene and take some immediate action to save their lifeline.
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