The proposal to give the mandate for restructuring the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to multinational consultancy agency Arthur Andersen has shocked and angered users of Khadi. Gandhians are going to take to the streets in a campaign beginning today to protest against the way government has neglected Khadi.
KVIC was created by an Act of Parliament in April 1957, it took over the former All India Khadi and Village Industries Board. The broad objectives for which it was established were providing employment and to prevent the exploitation of the poor. It worked on a - no profit, no loss basis.
There are many people in the country today who have worn khadi throughout their lives not because it is comfortable but because of the association that khadi has with the country. Some of them got together to form Khadi Mission in 1981 to carry forward the awareness and concept of khadi.
President of Samata party Jaya Jetli told Business Standard that bringing in foreigners would make the Indians feel worthless. She said that Indian marketing experts should have sat down and looked into the ways to restructure khadi and to increase its penetration and marketing.
"We are shocked at the way KVIC is being treated . Indian entrepreneurs have made an impact in the entire world with their expertise. They could have used their innovations to reform the designing, packaging and distributional aspect of khadi keeping in mind the basic concept. We see no reason for it being referred to Arthur Andersen" she added.
Gandhians pointed out that a high power committee was set up under the chairmanship of the former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to improve the marketing of khadi. It submitted a long list of recommendations that include opening of raw material banks near the production centres, replacing rebate by market development assistance, extension of khadi in future through special employment programme in selected backward districts, increasing production of khadi from the present level of 105 million sq. metres to 200 million sq metres by the terminal year of the plan, covering 125 blocks for development of KVIs providing employment to at least 1000 people on each block.
Out of those, only a few have been accepted by the government.
