UP's silk saree sector gets a raw deal

The alleged government apathy, acute power shortage and lack of adaptability have brought the famous silk saree industry of Mau in Uttar Pradesh on the brink of closure.

Once termed as the Manchester of handloom' by the country's first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, the town's silk saree industry is passing through its worst crisis since its inception from the times of the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan.

The silk industry of the town had taken rapid strides in the recent decades as it offered a cheap alternative to the costly Benarasi silk sarees'.

"The broad bordered silk sarees manufactured here are still very popular among the women especially the Bengali community", says Anees Ansari, a leading businessman.

But prolonged power cuts, lack of processing plants and export house and adaptibility have hit the industry hard", Ansari said.

He said about 75 per cent handlooms had stopped functioning and sale of silk sarees had gone down by about 60 per cent.

Even weaving charges of the labourers were down from Rs 80-90 to a meagre Rs 20-25, says Aslam, a weaver.

Aslam feels that the biggest problem facing the weavers is severe power shortage as a majority of weavers had shifted from the handloom to powerloom.

Irfan, another weaver, says the government should provide uninterrupted power supply to the district and establish export house, processing plant and a printing centre. Hundreds of weavers had migrated to other industrial centres in the country looking for greener pasteurs, Irfan said.

Conceding the problems being faced by the weavers, additional director, handloom K P Verma attributed the down trend to lack of ability to produce sarees of different designs.

"The designs of the Mau silk sarees are almost the same and are old fashioned', Verma said adding the industry had failed to gauge the changing trends in fashion and therefore suffered.

Verma, however, said the state government was considering some special plans for the weavers which included setting up of a processing plant and a printing centre.

Besides groups of 500 weavers would be formed, he said adding every group would be provided Rs 2 crore. The weaving community, however, is taking the government promise with a pinch of salt as they allege that several such promises had been made in the past but remain unfulfiled.

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Weaving miseries

• Prolonged power cuts, lack of processing plants and export house and adaptibility have hit Mau's silk saree industry hard
• About 75 per cent handlooms have stopped functioning and sale of silk sarees has gone down by about 60 per cent
• Even weaving charges of the labourers were down from Rs 80-90 to a meagre Rs 20-25