P.V.N. Madhav, MLC, has appealed to Union Minister for Textiles, Women and Child Development Smriti Irani to come to the rescue of handloom weavers in Andhra Pradesh, who were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter to the Union Minister, Mr. Madhav said that nearly four lakh weavers live in Andhra Pradesh and 20 lakh family members depend on this profession for their livelihood. Only some of the families have identity cards, while those who do not have them were not in a position to get the benefits being given by the State and Central governments.
During the lockdown, the weavers had no work due to restrictions imposed by the Centre. The already produced product was kept in the looms due to lack of transportation. Owing to the closure of spinning mills, the raw material to be used for handlooms was stopped, completely affecting the livelihood of weavers. The handloom sector would take two to three financial years to recover from the losses due to the current financial situation.
The MLC noted that the Centre was earning nearly ₹3,000 crore revenue through the export of handloom products. The Centre should take a few proactive steps to strengthen the handloom industry like remitting ₹5,000 to the bank account of every weaver family for the next six months, extension of free medical treatment to the weaver community for the next one year, purchase of all products, produced by the weavers, by the Centre, waiving of the loans extended to weavers and re-opening of spinning mills.
