The New Nation - Internet Edition

ACCORDING to a recent report, about 70 per cent of handlooms have closed down in Narsingdi district. This region, which earned the name of Manchester of Bangladesh for its handloom textiles, is now but a shadow of its golden past. Over 0.1 million looms have closed down in this district over the last thirty-five years throwing over 80,000 weavers into unemployment. This picture of the handloom factories is also representative of handloom factories in varying degrees in other parts of the country. The figures say that the total demand for fabrics in the country is about 1676 million metres. Out of this, 63 per cent or 800 million metres are produced by the handloom operators who make clothes for common people, as sarees, lungis and gamchas. More than 10 million people are linked directly or indirectly with handloom industries.

This sector can be quickly uplifted in every sense to create jobs at the grassroots level. Besides, the handloom products can be a source of substantial foreign currency earnings. Skull caps, lungis, gamchas, bedsheets and bedcovers produced by the handloom sector are being exported to some Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries. Clothes from handlooms such as 'grameen check' are being used increasingly to make apparels in the readymade garment (RMG) industries. Such local handloom spun fabrics have substituted to an extent the previously imported fabric for RMG industries. The handloom sector has a great deal of potential for further value addition in the RMG sector. But, at the moment, this is a neglected sector and 37.6 per cent of the handlooms all over the country are reportedly not operational. This stagnation calls for more focussed attention to its problems in view of its all round prospects.