ONGOLE: As many as 7,000 weavers and 20,000 ancillary workers of Chirala in Prakasam district, who were bereft of work during lockdown have a reason to smile — some master weavers are placing orders for sarees with them.
"We are happy to resume work again. If earlier we made Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,600 per saree, now it has been reduced to between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,200. It takes us two days to make a saree as per specifications. My entire family shares the work," 45-year-old G Subba Rao, a weaver of Bandaru Colony, Chirala told TNIE on Friday.
"Almost all the master weavers in Chirala have sarees worth between Rs 300 and Rs 400 crore stocked with them as most shopping malls are closed. Our handloom sarees and silk sarees are in demand across the State, Karnataka, TN and TS among others. Several shopping malls like CMR, RS Brothers, Pothys, and various textile showrooms place bulk orders," Janjanam Srinivasa Rao, another weaver, explained.
It may be noted that Chirala, known as the 'mini Mumbai of Andhra Pradesh', with 7,000 handloom weavers and 150 master weavers produce handlooms worth Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore worth per month. But ever since lockdown, life has come to a grinding halt for the weavers due to absence of work.
So much so that many weavers have diversified into various fields due to lockdown. The government has provided financial support to around 7,500 handloom weavers in and around Chirala for the 2019-20 fiscal.
After a door-to-door survey for 2020-21, officials prepared a list with 6,915 beneficiaries. "Compared to previous fiscal, the number of beneficiaries have reduced as some weavers diversified into various fields. We are providing loans to the cooperative societies and for non-cooperative society members we are providing Mudra loans on subsidy. However, this is a hard time for the handloom weavers," Handlooms and Textiles Assistant Director J Sivannarayana said.
Stating that handloom weavers were bereft of any benefit given by Cooperative Societies, Subba Rao said some leaders get the benefit by submitting false reports and information to the government. Furthermore, the weavers are a happy lot following the recent High Court status quo order regarding a handloom park site.
"It is a happy sign for all of us. At least now, the works on the much-delayed handloom park in the 26.81 acres of land situated at Nayinapalli in Challareddy Palem panchayat of Vetapalem mandal may gain pace. The HC had issued the status quo order to prevent the government from taking over the lands for distribution of house sites among the poor. We hope the government will look into the matter and come forward with a comprehensive action plan to fulfill the handloom weavers' wish to have a handloom park," B Jwala Narasimham, a handloom weavers community leader said.