Hubli: The little town of Ilkal in Bagalkot district had around five thousand handlooms that used to craft traditional sarees more than a decade ago.
Now, the number of families engaged in making beautiful hand-woven sarees has reduced to just 500 with the onslaught of power looms. The transition from handloom to powerloom has affected the quality of famous ‘Ilkal sarees’ which has been accorded Geographical Indication tag.
The weavers of the modern generation are forced to switch over to power looms as they are finding it earn their livelihood by doing it manually.
The sarees woven with the powerloom have flooded the market and this has endangered the livelihood of small handloom weavers. Bagalkot and Gadag districts are the epicenter of weaving activities.
The ancient Ilkal sarees have a unique design and availability of local raw material has helped in the popularity of these sarees over the years.
Power looms can produce 3-4 sarees every day, while handloom weavers can hardly craft one saree. Hand-woven sarees get a price of more than Rs 10,000 owing to their durability and unique design. But, production of cheap clothes by power looms has jeopardized the livelihood of handloom weavers.
“It is difficult for poor handloom weavers to shift to the power loom which costs more than 60,000 per unit. New weavers are opting for powerlooms as it is a question of surviva thrugh it produces cheap and inferior sarees”, said Ilkal Handloom and Powerloom Weavers Agitation Committee general secretary Ashok Shavi.
