SREEPUR, GAZIPUR, Sept 29: Handloom industry in Kaliganj Upazila of the district is facing existential crisis due to lack of necessary equipment and government patronisation.
In the face of competition by the modern industrialisation, the sector is failing to stand here due to various problems including rise in the prices of dye, yarn and electricity, and lack of labourer.
Once, moslin clothes would be produced in handloom factories beside the Shitalakshya River at Kaliganj in Gazipur and Narsingdi. As part of this, the handlooms grew at Chaura of Kaliganj and adjoining areas.
Losing all the past glamour, weaver families are now living in inhuman conditions.
The weavers in Chaura, Bahadursadi, Khanjana, Boronagar, Uttargaon and nearby villages are somehow running their hereditary profession. Many of them are selling off machines, furniture and other objects of the handlooms as scrap.
Kaliganj Municipality Tanti League President Ruhul Amin said, "Handloom is my ancestral profession. In the '90s, over 1,000 labourers had worked in about 1,200 handlooms in Kaliganj and adjacent areas. In these handlooms, one labourer could produce one dozen of towels in a day. Then they would go to Baburhat in Narsingdi carrying these towels on head for selling."
He also said, to stay in the market, the weavers stopped 1,200 handlooms and installed 400 power-looms. As a result, many labourers turned jobless. Leaving handlooms, many have switched over to other professions. So, labourer crisis has also been created in the handloom sector.
He further said, at present, a labourer in a power-loom can produce 12 dozens of towels daily.
But the production cost has increased due to unabated rise in the prices of electricity, yarn, dye, labourers' wages, and transportation, he pointed out.
He added, some 300 power-looms out of the total 400 are running now, and their number is declining gradually. About 500 labourers engaged with these power-looms are living in hardship.
A weaver, Md Shamsuzzaman said, "I have six power-looms. I have been in this sector for the last 40 years. Due to double price of yarn and increased electricity price, my six power-looms are nearing closure."
He also said, "In my power-looms, I produce five types of terry towels. Excluding all costs, I make profit worth Tk 20 from per dozen of the towel."
Handloom owner Karim Bhuiyan and his wife Afroza Akhter said, instead of expanding, this profession is squeezing day by day due to lack of government patronisation.
Genuine weavers are not getting loan facility declared by the government, said a labourer Anwar Hossen.
For not getting bank loans in easy terms, many are taking loans on high interest from different NGOs, he added.
A veteran labourer, Mohammad Sikandar Ali said, "I have been in this profession since the Pakistan period. Though handlooms cannot survive in the face of power-looms, the necessity of handloom has not been over. There are some sharp weaving techniques which are possible only by handlooms."
President of Gazipur Chamber of Commerce and Industries Md Anwar Sadat Sarker said, "In getting financial assistance, we will remain beside the weavers. They can take assistance from the recently declared incentive of Tk 20,000 crore. We'll try for them through deputy commissioner (DC) in getting this incentive."
DC SM Torikul Islam said steps will be taken for protecting the traditional handloom industry of Kaliganj.
