International Journal Advances in Social Science and Humanities
Available online at: www.ijassh.com
REVIEW ARTICLE
Make in India: to Amend or Not to Amend ‘The Handloom Act of 1985’?
Manisha*
Aditi Mashavidyalaya, University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
*Corresponding Author: Email: [email protected]
Abstract
When our prime minister is talking about youth and man power of our economy and ‘window of opportunity’ is open to us, how can we neglect the requirement for more jobs and self employment generation in our economy where mass unemployment prevail along with other crucial characteristics? If our human capital is not working then what is the use of talking about young man-power and ‘window of opportunity’ available to us? Handloom sector seems to play a significant role in this context...
Introduction
From many days we were hearing and watching the news from different media sources that perhaps government is going to amend ‘The handloom Act of 1985’, which will endanger livelihood of weavers along with the exclusiveness of Handloom and this will be because of the demands done by power loom lobby. This amendment can prove a doom for the loom as well as for the nation. A meeting called at the ministry of textiles on 10 April to discuss the Act, at almost no notice and attended primarily by the power loom lobby, has been taken as a warning [1]. Recently it has been reported by some media sources that government is not planning any changes to the law that could leave traditional weavers competing with the mechanized power loom sector. A spirited intervention in Parliament by BJP MP Kirron Kher brought a hurried assurance from the Textile Minister that the Act would remain, but there has been no subsequent government confirmation of this [2]. "We have no plans to dilute the provisions of the Handloom (Reservation) Act. We don't plan to change the 11 points in the 1984 Act," union textile minister Santosh Gangwar told NDTV” [3]. Meanwhile, an online petition, ‘Save Handlooms-Don’t repeal the Handloom Reservation Act!’ received 15,000 signatories in less than a week, presenting people’s concern for handloom who are active on social media [2].
If the news that government is not going to amend the act is right, then it is a matter of great pleasure that government has taken rational decision. Protecting ‘The handloom Act of 1985’ is
protecting the loom from doom as well as defending the nation from many problems. As this act is very important for protection of the handloom sector and for the nation and should be protected, everyone should know about significance and need for protecting the sector.
Make in India and Inspiration to Amend
the Act
What could be the inspiration to amend the handloom Act of 1985, which lists goods and textiles reserved for production by traditional craftsmen and weavers and incentives offered to them, given the emphasis on Make in India? Power loom lobby is riding on the “Make in India” wave and the concern of “modernisation to meet the global market demands”. This attitude regards modernity as a rejection of traditional knowledge and skill and the motivation is rooted in a subconscious attitude that regards India’s handloom sector as an outdated “sunset” activity irrelevant to dreams of global economic strength. That is the basic concern. “We faced this attitude in the Crafts Council of India a few years ago, with planners at the top declaring that Indian craft was an irrelevant culture. Derogatory terms like “unorganized” and “drudgery” are applied to time-tested craft systems” said Ashok Chatterjee in an interview published in livemint [1] .
want traditional styles of handloom, when it is obvious that it will bring massive unemployment, poverty and will also prove harmful for women empowerment and inclusive growth.
The reason is clear that they want a “handmade” image, realizing the massive demand potential, to claim benefits limited to handlooms on the cost of welfare of the nation. Demand by the power loom lobbies, to dereserve the sari, is only because of this. Already, the south Indian lungi and many of the Kashmiri shawls like Pashmina have been taken over by power looms, despite so-called protection. Celebrating 150th anniversary of 1865 shawl weavers revolt, Kashmir Pashmina Karigar Union protested in Kashmir on 29th April 2015, demanding ban on the mechanization of the Pashmina shawl industry in the state [4] .
What is ‘Making in India’ and how India
can be Made?
Now there are many questions about ‘Make in India’. The first is about its meaning that what should be the meaning of ‘Make in India’? Making more and more products inside India or to make more and more products for the welfare of the nation? Should products be made or India be made? Making a country means making its people happy and satisfied and this can only be done by increasing their purchasing power along with equity and justice. Purchasing power of people depends upon income and income depends upon working (employment) scenario. People are not only ends but are also means itself. They are our human capital. India is a country where approximately 70% human capital lives in villages. Work participation rate (WPR) is only 39.8% [5]. People are poor as 29.5% lives below the poverty line as defined by the Rangarajan committee. This entire scenario of India presents the critical situation of unemployment and poverty. Education level tells about the efficiency of human capital. In these circumstances there is a dire need of development for problem solving. It has been said that because of ‘Demographic Transition’, ‘Window of Opportunity’ is open to us and India is a young country. Now the question arises that are we getting the benefit of dividends from ‘Window of Opportunity’ available to us, which is open only for a limited period? Use of this opportunity has been proved beneficial to many countries. If we observe the reasons of success for economic development of ‘East Asia’ then one of the main reasons was accessibility of good human capital and its use at the time of opening window of opportunity [6-11].
If people are not working and contributing to the economy then what is the use of being and talking about a young and human capital abundant country? If it is not used then after that period it will turn in to ‘Window of misery’. For development, this human capital should be used to their optimum, according to their qualifications. Because human capital operates physical capital but physical capital does not operate human capital, so plans and technology should be according to efficiency of human capital. So, India can only be made by providing employment to its man-power along with equity and justice.
Handloom,
‘Make
in
India’
and
Employment Generation
Present scenario: Existence of this Act is for protection of Handloom sector from the competition of power loom sector. It saves the livelihood of the people working in Handloom. At present Handloom is the second largest sector to provide employment after agriculture. According to government calculations 43.30 lakh persons are employed in Handloom, although the Sivaraman Committee has reported it about 1.2 crore persons [12]. This is much more than power loom sector with a massive gap. Only Fabindia consumes 11.2 million meters of handloom fabric a year worth Rs. 112 crore. It creates 100,000 man-days of employment and creates over 86,000 jobs, compared to 34 jobs for 24 lakh meters in the mill sector. There are an estimated 20 million handloom workers (this includes pre-loom and post-loom processes), compared to three million in the IT industry [2].According to National Council of Applied Economic Research, 47% of handloom worker households are BPL and almost 75% of handloom workers are women . Research also tells that 60% of adult handloom workers are with little or no schooling [13]. OUTLOOK, 9 January 2012 explains that almost 80%of the artisans in Khadi, which is a part of handloom sector, are women.
family as it is spent for nutrition, health, education and other positive things and when everybody is talking about big and ideal things like women empowerment, equity, justice and inclusive growth; how can we neglect the contribution of this sector which is providing job to women, marginal sections and less educated so fulfils the motive of inclusive growth and Make in India and is actually proving its great relevance by working on it?
64th round of national sample survey, which presents a clearer picture of efficiency of human capital in India, tells about that Level of education is very low as most of the literates (45.4% out of 65.5% literates) are educated only up to upper primary level and % of higher educated people is very less (3.9% are graduate, 1.1% are postgraduate and above and only 0.6% are having diploma certificate courses and these percentages is out of 65.5% literates) and 34.5 % are non literate [14]. In these critical conditions, it provides employment to a lot of rural uneducated or less educated poor people, which is the main characteristic of most of the human capital. As this is a low capital requirement sector with traditional techniques, it also provides enormous opportunities to the people for self employment generation.
It is also a way which helps us to break the ‘Vicious Circle of Poverty’. Poverty creates poverty and number of poor in India tells about its situation in this context. Poverty is because of unemployment and less productivity of factors and it stunts demand as well as supply of the economy. Handloom sector is giving its contribution to break the circle from both the sides by providing employment to poor and vuleranable people. It also helps to enhance the productivity of the people as it helps people to gain education by providing them income. It has been noted that even after a successful primary enrolment rate, our enrolment rates at middle, secondary and senior secondary and at higher education are low. This is due to significant drop outs. According to HRD Ministry 2004-05 data, gross enrolment rate is 96% for Primary education but drop outs are very high. Drop outs are 29% up to Primary level and it is 51% up to eighth standard and 61% up to ninth standard [9]. 64th round of national sample survey, which provides latest data available for 2012, enlightens that only 8% people have achieved their desired level of education and from rest 92%, 21% has discontinued their education or never enrolled because of financial constraints which is biggest reason in comparison with other reasons with a
huge gap [14]. Financial constraint hinders their way to education and it further leads to less growth rate of GDP by hindering their productivity. This supports vicious circle of poverty in a poor country and interloping relationship of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. Handloom sector is playing an important role for breaking this nexus which is providing strength to this circle.
This low WPR coupled with poverty and low level of education along with gender discrimination and presence of marginal and deprived sections tell us about the need for more job creations and self employment generation in traditional and low capital requirement sectors and this handloom sector is doing exactly the same.
All these characteristics are presenting Handloom as a great Industry which provides employment to lots of people, in which most of them are women, poor, marginalised section and rural people and most of them are with little or no schooling, along with playing a role in breaking the vicious circle of poverty in the nation. It becomes more important in a scenario when it has been noted that India had not added jobs in agriculture or manufacturing since 1995.
Future Perspective
It is also assessed that 500 million needs to be employed by 2020 [12] .This sector has great potential for future employment generation also. This is clear from the fact that Increase in the share of power loom production in the past five years has also been minimal, while Production of handloom has also grown in comparison to power looms despite of many problems. India’s hand-crafted textiles are in high demand worldwide. Handloom exports have risen steadily, even during recession years. At home, demand is huge even without strong market mechanisms.
decision will be to use all its resources to their optimum according to their capacity and they should do in which they are the best as also supported by our prime minister. Artisans are highly skilled and scientific in their work and if they lose their job then they will do other works in which they are not efficient and where many unemployed people are already available to do those works. Characteristics of Indian economy tell their capacity and its need for traditional village industries where technical and capital requirements are suitable to its conditions.
Another one important concern is that if power looms are permitted in India; different countries like China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Germany, Korea, Thailand exporters are ready to throw their products in the Indian market. It has not happened yet, because varieties are reserved for handlooms exclusively.
Other than the above said reasons, there are many other reasons telling about the importance of handloom; like our heritage and artistry will be at a risk and the soul of the traditional items will
be altered forever., environmental costs and benefits of green economy enterprises and it’s much more need in disturbed areas like in north-east and Jammu and Kashmir. More than 60% of India’s weavers live in the North East and earn about Rs 300 per day [13,16]. This decision of scrapping the act can also prove harmful for the regional rest.
Conclusion
All these facts present a picture about the dire need and relevance of Handloom sector in present circumstances and for future for employment generation, women empowerment and inclusive growth in the country. These also tell about the need for rational socio-economic behaviour to achieve the target of development. If government is not going to repeal the act then it is very good for our country. Government has done many efforts earlier but Along with this rational decision government should try to solve their problems so that we can get maximum benefits from handloom sector and ‘make in India’ can actually get its meaning.
References
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