Gorakhpur weavers are trapped in vicious cycle of poverty

Gorakhpur is known as the land of Kabir and posses a huge population of weaver’s community. 400 years old weaving art was once flourishing business and provided employment to many is facing slow death in the region. Closed cotton mills, destroyed Handloom Corporation, electricity bills, exploitation of traders and middlemen have ruined the prosperity of poor weavers and compelled them to either migrate from their place or to take up menial work in other professions.

Poor weavers are facing a tough time as an artisan Karemunnisa, 35, Gorakhnath resident laments, “I and my two small children work hard to manage two time meal. Sending children to school is a dream that seems too far to be real in adverse condition of my life. I lead a different life in my childhood but now the things are changed. I only earn 90 rupees a day which is insufficient to cover my basic requirements. Most of my relatives have either left the profession and pulling rickshaw or left the city and work in places like Nepal. My husband died 4 years ago with TB and my father also died 5 years back. So I am living here as I don’t have any options left.”

The story of Kareemunnisa is not rare in the city as the weavers are bound to work at very low wage in lack of availability of yarn and organized finished good market. Haji Asrar Ahmed Ansari, wholesaler, Afghan Hata avers,” we are passing through a difficult phase of life as poor weaver can’t buy expensive yarn and even if he manages he is bound to sell at low rate to the traders in the absence of organized and government regulated market. He works hard and earn loss survives with the aid of government loans and get trapped in never ending cycle of poverty.”

On the recent announcement of government policy regarding loans Meraj, renowned social activist and wholesaler at Sharmaroof market says, “It’s good that Government has announced a relief package for the weavers but it is not enough for the community as the loans were distributed to the poor weavers through society and unfortunately the portion of the loan that was given to the poor weaver was very less. Societies deceived them and their illiteracy destroyed them.  They were poor, they are poor and they will be poor if reforms are not done within time in the entire system. Very soon we will lose the age old art of weaving from the region if the condition in the state continues.”

Ditto Hafiz Asadullah(Renowned business man of the city), “Reforms are required in the system. At present, the handloom industry is under the grip of local moneylenders. The local workers suffer exploitation following absence of any government support for them to arrange cotton. There is no place for weavers to get yarn easily at cheap rates and there is no place for them to sell their product. They sell their product to the handful of traders and middlemen at lower rates. Mills are closed and corporation is not in working mode. The situation is tough as many of the weavers left the profession and few cases of suicide also came into light few years back.”

Chowdhary Najmuddin , renowned businessman and community leader speaks about the history of mills and corporations, “ We agitated in 1972 and it was then decided that Government will run cotton mills and Handloom corporation in the state. We had 14 mills in the region out of 23 cotton mills in the state and various centers of UP Handloom Corporation all over the state. You won’t believe that the trade on the centers was in millions but due to the careless attitude of the Government all the mills closed one after one and so as the Handloom centers. Now yarn comes mostly from south and traders exploit the poor weavers.”

Kamruzzama Ansari, leader, weaver’s association says, “20 -25 years back the community was in different shape. Earlier UP Handloom Corporation used to provide yarn to the weavers and purchase goods at fair price on which weavers was left with 30% savings. The business was running well as yearly purchase of corporation was around Rs. 11-12 crore. Corporation is at the verge of closure now as 111 employees are ousted from the Corporation with VRS scheme and only 4 employees are left with pending salary of 5-6 years. A weaver is getting around Rs.2500 in a month after working hard for 14 hours a day. We talked to almost all big leaders of the state but nothing came out except their empty visits to the region. An Rs.6732 crore package is announced from the center after our joint efforts but it is insufficient as we want running cotton mills and corporation in the state.”

Arjumand Bano