Rosaiah Nagar Economic Development Programme: a pilot project on revitalization of handloom weavers

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Contents

BACKGROUND

ASSIST has been struggling hard to understand the problem of weavers in Chirala Region, which is one of the main centres of handloom weaving industry in the State of Andhra Pradesh. It has learnt from its experience that it is not possible to find an one-time solution to the problems of the handloom weavers but a process has to be initiated whereby the weavers are able to evolve a system which can continuously get work and as well as remunerative wages despite fluctuations in the textile industry and the exploitation by the master weavers. In order to initiate any remedial measures to the problem of the weavers, ASSIST initiated to take up Rosaiah Nagar as a role model to initiate a programme of revitalization of weavers’ families in Chirala Region. Rosaiah Nagar being the mixed community of weavers’ and non-weavers, it provided an opportunity to create a model for weavers’ and other problematic communities in this region.

Accordingly, ASSIST was privileged to obtain the required support from UMMI to take up this pilot project in Rosaiah Nagar. The project became an initial venture to venture into viable livelihood option in weaving trade and it paved a way to attract other major players such as Aga Khan Foundation and European Union by seeing the impact of this pilot project.


STRATEGY ADOPTED:

The present programme was designed and adopted four-fold objective with the goal of making all the target families of this community have sustainable living with assured income generation opportunities on their own:

  • ASSIST strongly believes prerequisite for the development is: the community should attain the necessary attitudinal change and feel that they have to work united as a force to uplift themselves. It implies that the community feels responsible for their own development and does not depend on the repeated subsidies and welfare schemes.
  • The second phase was to provide the target families with the required working capital to have looms and accessories of their own. It implies that their dependence on master weavers has to be totally removed and these weavers have to be organised to have better living conditions with the enhanced income as a result of their efforts.
  • Having achieved the attitudinal change and acquired the required machinery inputs for their working, the target families were brought together as a cooperative with the shared benefits to all the concerned. Here, instead of forming a new cooperative society, the strategy adopted was to strengthen one of the sick cooperative societies to obtain the necessary benefits from the government. This has not only facilitated the benefit to this community exclusively but also to other members of the society such as benefitting a few more communities, too.
  • The third strategy adopted was to cover non-weaving families in the community by conducting the feasibility study and extending support to establish viable income-generation units.


ACTIVITIES EXECUTED:

Based on the above strategy, the following activities were implemented under this project:

a. Sensitisation:

All the target families were sufficiently made understood on the problems prevailing in the weaving profession through house-visits, mass meetings and cultural camps. Evidently, seven cultural camps organised by MELUKOLUPU troop to bring the necessary attitudinal change among the people in the community was an highlight of this activity.

New designs were developed based on the local demands and the required training was imparted to the target group as a follow-up step to the sensitisation campaign. Community organisers were constantly on the job in the village and motivating the target group to follow the designs of demand in the market.

b. Provision of looms with accessories:

While the weavers’ families were completely depending on the master weaver for looms with accessories, the project aimed at the provision of working capital to enable them to function independently. Accordingly, 48 looms, designs and a working capital Rs. 440,000- was provided to the existing cooperative society. With the provision of this working capital, the existing society was revived and all the members were able to obtain the required raw material from the society and the finished products were marketed through the society. Since this is one of the societies formed by the State Government, they are eligible for all the provisions extended by the government and they were in a position to market their produce through the Government wings. This has enabled the weavers’ families on their own without depending on the master weavers and be dependent on them forever. However, it is a sensitive issue and efforts are being continued by the field workers along with the leaders of weavers to sustain this process.


c. Livelihood Promotion for non-weaving families:

Another activity implemented under the project was extending the support to non-weaving families. Feasibility study was conducted to identify the appropriate units based on their skills, talents, raw material available in the area and the local market demand. Accordingly, 33 families were supported with the assistance to establish micro units as follows:

  • Embroidary fabric work
  • Clothes business
  • Sweet making unit
  • Chicken business
  • Carpentry machine
  • Deeparadhana sticks
  • Milch animals
  • Saree business
  • Petty shops
  • Plastic vessels business
  • Beets selling business
  • Tailoring machine
  • Belt shop
  • Chappal shop
  • Rickshaw







PROJECT IMPACT:

Though it is too early to study the impact of the pilot project, immediate results can be envisaged as follows:


  • With the revival of one sick cooperative society in the area, a positive movement has generated among other societies. Though they were desperate all these years, now they hope that their societies could also be revived one day.
  • 48 weaving families could be liberated from the clutches of master weavers and they are continuing their activities through the revived cooperative society.
  • Other members of the cooperative society also could benefit with the provision of raw material and marketing support for their finished products.
  • 33 non-weaving families have successfully established micro-units and continuing their units.
  • This pilot project has created greater demand for weavers’ families in the region to venture into self-help initiative similar to this nature.
  • New project supported by Aga Khan Foundation with the support of European Union has resulted by seeing the benefits of this project.
  • Government has also started cluster-based programme to replicate the similar model for a group of weavers’ families.
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