The employment in handlooms sector
dropped throughout the country from 124 lakh in
the 1970s to 35 lakh at present. Tamil Nadu has
also witnessed diminishing trend in handlooms
weavers over decades due to various factors such
as exodus of weavers to other remunerative
occupations due to advancement in high literacy
rate in the State, etc.
The handlooms industry in Tamil Nadu has
been facing multiple challenges due to the
onslaught of powerloom and auto loom which
provide greater productivity.
The approach of the Government is to
‘sustain the weavers of handlooms industry’ and
‘continue to provide livelihood to the several lakh
of weavers who depend on this activity’. This
requires constant skill upgradation to produce
marketable products, technology upgradation to
increase the productivity and appropriate
intervention to maintain quality to compete in the
market besides product diversification in the
entire value chain and continuous design
interventions to produce marketable products
which are in greater demand across the globe.
The Government of Tamil Nadu strive to
preserve the art and culture of handlooms while
ensuring the sustainability of the weavers through
a well-established value chain linkages and
undertaken multiple initiatives across the entire
value chain to ensure sustainability viz., Co-
optex, Primary Weavers Co-operative Societies,
collaborating with NIFT, NID and other designers for design, Co-operative Spinning Mills for raw
material sourcing, Primary Handlooms Weavers
Co-operative Societies for weaving, Co-optex,
Loomworld and showrooms of Primary Societies
for marketing and sales.