BENGALURU: It is good news for weavers, who continue to reel under the effects of Covid. The Department of Textiles and Handlooms is coming up with its own e-commerce website and mobile app, where one can place orders for sarees that are unique to Karnataka directly from weavers at a lesser price.
The state has around 54,000 handloom and 1.4 lakh powerloom weavers, mostly concentrated in Belagavi, Bagalkot, Chitradurga, Vijayapura, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara districts. Mysuru silk, Ilkal, Molakalmuru, Udupi, Guledghad and Navalgund sarees have got their Geographical Indications (GI) tag. Though these sarees are of good quality, have good brand value and possess the GI tag, it is the middlemen who make the money and not the struggling weavers.
To address this, the Department is planning to develop an e-commerce platform, a department source said.
A few weavers, who are good financially, have tried selling their products on Amazon and other big e-commerce websites, but the response has not been up to the mark. “We are now developing the in-house website and mobile application that allow weavers to upload pictures of their sarees and other products directly. It works similar to other e-commerce websites.
Once a customer buys a product, a message is sent directly to the weaver, who can dispatch the saree to the customer’s doorstep,’’ the sources said. This will benefit both weavers and customers, as weavers can sell without paying any commission, while customers can get the product at a lower price. The Department is conducting a market survey, collecting initial data of weavers and working on delivery partners.
The government is also planning to open big showrooms for these products in other cities, including Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad. “If everything goes well, these sarees can be even be sent abroad,” the sources added. Earlier, Textiles Minister Shrimanth Patil had proposed to procure six lakh sarees from weavers, at prices ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 600 per saree and gift two each to three lakh Covid warriors. The cost estimate of Rs 36 crore was sent to the Finance Department, but it was rejected twice, said sources from the minister’s office.