Modi effect: Hats off to handlooms

“During my Mann ki Baat (in October 2014) I had appealed to the nation to use at least e Khadi product to brighten lakhs of our artisans. This had good response. The Khadi sales increased by 60 per cent over the previous year. We need to make a similar effort to support our weavers,” he said and urged the film industry to highlight the handloom products in one out of every five films they produce.

“The film industry has a major role in popularising fashion. Chennai is a big centre for (producing) films. They could highlight handloom, Khadi and handicraft in one out of every five films they make. Lakhs of weavers in India will see your films, which will help them to get a market,” the Prime Minister said as over 3,000 weavers who had gathered at a function organised by the Union Textile Ministry at the Madras University’s auditorium here, acknowledged with a thunderous applause.

Modi, who also launched India Handloom Brand logo and gave away Sant Kabir awards to handloom weavers who excelled in their profession, coinciding with the Swadeshi Movement launched this day in 1905, said handlooms had been the potent tool to win our freedom during the Swadeshi Movement and the same could now liberate weavers from poverty.

Handlooms formed 15 per cent of the total cloth consumption in the country and if we could raise this to 20 per cent, this will give a boost to the handloom industry taking its turnover by 33 per cent, he claimed. People, especially women wear handloom sarees on social occasions and major festivals and there is an imperative need to popularise these products among the youth.

“We need to make our handloom tradition the centrepiece of fashion for India and the world,” he said and called for powerful branding of India Handlooms and aggressive marketing of the brand globally.

In her address, which was read out by finance minister O. Panneerselvam at the National Handloom Day event here, she said: “Tamil Nadu has been at the forefront in implementing schemes for the handloom sector growth and welfare of the weavers like the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Yojana, Weavers’ Credit Card Scheme and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.” Stating that, it is most appropriate that the first National Handloom Day function is being held in Chennai, she said Tamil Nadu held a pride of place in textiles and handlooms.

Handloom products from Tamil Nadu have won universal acclaim, like the Kanchipuram and Arani silk saris. “Madras checks” was a globally well recognized cotton textile design motif, she noted. Giving details of state schemes for the benefit of handloom weavers and their families including solar green houses, she also referred to initiatives aimed at retaining the interest of younger generations in handloom. Promotion of use of pedal looms, electronic jacquards, motorized warping machines and jacquard lifting motors were among such initiatives, she said. “I would like to reaffirm my government’s commitment to the preservation and development of the handloom sector and the welfare of weavers,” she added.