It is often not heard that weavers find any prospect to hold negotiations with members of the Planning Commission in Delhi, yet they are stepping on to appraise the sorry state of the handloom industry.
For an eighty-year-old Nizammudin, a weaver from Varanasi, it was indeed a venture but was aware that it was his first encounter with members of the Planning Commission.
Amid government officials and experts, he said that weavers had not simply attend the meeting as pompous artisans. Often portrayed as the nation's pride, weavers like him have actually arrived to plead for a red card or Antodyaya card intended for families living below poverty line.
Artisans who belonged to below the poverty line category were issued cards that would permit them to obtain low-priced rice and wheat through public distribution system.
Nizammudin justified the provision for card saying, "A weaver is at death's door and no one knows when he will breathe his last. If we do not give him rations, a red card or Antodyaya card and keep him alive, a disaster will take place."
Weavers also sought creation of a Weaver's Trust, which can provide soft loans to the needy besides seeking curbing levy on Chinese silk yarn.
"We are in the grip of poverty. Our children go to bed hungry, there is no money to educate them," cried out Mushtaq Ahmed Ansari, another weaver.
Handloom industry offers a maximum job opportunity following agriculture and the UPA's common minimum programme has devoted itself to the well being of the weavers although time is running out.
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