Gone are the days when powerloom weavers resorted to suicides due to unemployment and debts, owing to crisis in the powerloom industry in Sircilla textile town, also called as the Sholapur of Telangana.
Now, it’s the other way round. The migration of powerloom weavers from Sircilla to Bhiwandi, Surat and other parts of the country in search of employment has stopped. On the other hand, they have returned to their native Sircilla as their hands are full ever since the government chose them for weaving Bathukamma sarees.
The State government had placed bulk orders worth ₹300 crore for weaving 90 lakh Bathukamma sarees, including blouses, in 80 colours in the month of March this year. The sarees are to be distributed during the ensuing Bathukamma festival in October. The weavers have achieved 50 % of the target and are working in two shifts to complete the orders before October 5.
A decade ago, weavers in Sircilla had no work and migrated to other places. Now, there is a shortage of weavers to work on the powerlooms. Initially, the Bathukamma sarees were produced on 6,000 powerlooms and later increased to 12,000 looms. Now, the work is going on full steam on 16,000 powerlooms to produce the sarees to meet the target.
Hailing the State government’s decision that has resulted in round-the-clock employment for weavers with good wages, Samalla Mallesham, leader of the powerloom workers union affiliated to AITUC, suggested that the government should bring out a calendar scheduling the weaving cycles so that targets are met easily.
Though more than 2,000 weavers have returned from Bhiwandi and Surat to work on powerlooms in Sircilla, there is still shortage of weavers. The powerlom weavers are working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. in two shifts. Accepting that there was shortage of weavers in Sircilla, AD (handlooms and textiles) V Ashok Rao said they were taking measures to increase the number of powerlooms from existing 16,000 to 20,000 and also minimise wastage of timeto produce the bathukamma sarees.
