[India] Weavers seek 'below poverty line' card

from NDTV Profit

Sutapa Deb

It is not often that weavers get the opportunity to hold discussions with members of the Planning Commission in Delhi, even when it is on ways to resolve the crisis in the handloom industry

Eighty-year-old Nizammudin, a weaver from Varanasi, was aware it was a first when he met the Planning Commission members.

But he told the meeting of government officials and experts that weavers had not come to the meeting as proud artisans.

Weavers like him, who are described as the nation's pride, were here to beg for a red card or Antodyaya card that is meant for families below the poverty line.

Their families were below the poverty line and the card would entitle them to cheap rice and wheat from the public distribution system.

"A weaver is at death's door. No one knows when he will breathe his last. If we don't give him rations, a red card or Antodyaya card and keep him alive, a disaster will take place," he said.

Weavers' trust

The weavers are also seeking the formation of a weaver's trust, soft loans and lifting of duty on Chinese silk yarn.

"We are in the grip of poverty. Our children go to bed hungry, there is no money to educate them," said Mushtaq Ahmed Ansari, Weaver.

Handloom industry provides the largest employment after agriculture and the UPA's common minimum programme has committed itself to the welfare of the weavers. But time is running out.

Their plight has grim echoes of the crisis faced by farmers. Barely a month passes without the report of a suicide by a weaver.

NDTV's reports from Varanasi have shown weavers to be on the brink of starvation. The government can no longer ignore this disaster. Nearly every third house in this weaver's belt has a family on the brink of starvation.

The Planning Commission is soon expected to present its recommendations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.