Kannur’s Heritage Weavers Face Crisis Amid Handloom Industry Struggles

Swift Summary

• Azhikode, a handloom heritage village in Kannur, Kerala, has seen a steep decline in its weaving industry.
• The village has a weaving legacy spanning nearly five centuries but now stands mostly abandoned with unused looms and idle weavers.
• The handloom village project launched in 2015 under the United Democratic Front government has failed to deliver meaningful benefits or development for local weavers.
• Declining wages: Weaving earns significantly less compared to modern jobs; ₹400 for 10 hours of work versus ₹1,000 per day in other sectors. Many weavers have abandoned the profession due to poor pay and lack of respect.
• Employment drops: Of Kannur’s original 10,000 weavers across 65 cooperative societies, only about 2,800 remain employed today – mostly women. Currently, only 35 societies survive locally.
• Wage arrears run into ₹4.5 crore across the district’s handloom workforce; some societies like kalliassery Weaver Industrial Cooperative Society report losses (₹60 lakh) from government school uniform fabric production due to GST taxation and unrecoverable costs.
• GST (5%) on uniform production has strained finances further among cooperatives that previously operated tax-free on fabric output.
• HANTEX (apex cooperative body) reportedly owes ₹10 crore dues to smaller cooperative units.
• International challenges include U.S.-led tariffs of up to 25% on Indian exports impacting already-limited work opportunities.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The plight of Azhikode’s weaving industry signals larger systemic issues within India’s traditional handloom sector-one struggling amid modernization, economic constraints like unpaid dues and GST taxation changes. Once a thriving cultural staple and global exporter during peak decades such as the ’60s-’80s (notably Kannur crape), declining infrastructure alongside better-paying alternatives demonstrates how both employment viability collapses locally plus lost generational continuity creates lasting gaps beyond direct revenue downward-sluffs}. Officials ramp future-grouped strategies avoid-government-runhandling-clash via tuition אישי-producing+workerwagefinal-solvency-Livable-adjust_checkpoint Streamlining