Silk weavers in Karnataka lament over falling profits due to globalization and liberalisation policies.
It has affected silk weavers in Doddaballapura, 90 kilometres from the state capital Karnataka. The silk produced here is considered as one of the best in the country.
The city is credited with producing pure silk, art silk, china silk, soft silk, handloom silk and many more.
But, once flourishing silk business is severely affected now. Many loom owners complain that they are not fetching profits due to combined effect of liberalisation and globalisation policies.
"This industry was in a good condition a decade ago. This industry was forced into trouble due to the globalisation and liberalisation policy. Because of the policies of LPG (liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation), the home industries and small scale industries, which include weaving as well, could not compete with the big and large scale Industries," said Hemanth Raju, Weavers Association President.
Earlier, there were 25-30 thousand handloom units in Doddaballapura alone but now they have been reduced to 8-10 thousand.
The other reason causing worry to the weavers is low demand of genuine silk in the market due to its high cost price.
India's 40 per cent of silk is supplied from Doddaballapura alone and more than one lakh people are dependent on the silk industry. The city produces one lakh sarees every week and these are supplied to almost every part of the country. By Shweta(ANI)
