Chendamangalam handloom industry jolted by steep decline in weavers, keep fingers crossed during this Onam

With Onam round the corner, customers insistent on authentic ethnic wear have started flocking to the idyllic Chendamangalam village in North Paravur taluk in Ernakulam district, known for its famed handloom products.

While the demand for Chendamangalam handloom remains intact, the traditional industry — caught in a time warp — is staring at a crisis, primarily due to a steep decline in the number of weavers. From a peak of around 5,000 weavers and people in allied services in North Paravur taluk until the 1980s, that number has progressively declined to around 500 now, across five handloom cooperative societies.

“Even as the existing weavers are lured by the employment guarantee programme, the new generation continues to stay away from the industry due to the widespread campaign that wages are very low. The fact is that remuneration is good if you are prepared to adapt and put in the hard yards,” said Ajith Kumar Gothuruth, the former secretary who is in charge of the Chendamangalam-Karimpadam Handloom Cooperative Society, which shot into global fame through its ‘Chekutty’ dolls made of soiled textile from the flood-ravaged looms in 2018. Incidentally, the society raked in ₹32 lakh by selling ‘Chekutty’ dolls globally over a period of six months, thus more than covering the loss of textiles worth ₹25 lakhs during the deluge.

Globalised age

Having organised under the cooperative sector during the 1960s — much earlier than anywhere else — the handloom industry in Chendamangalam, unlike its brethren in the handloom villages of Balaramapuram and Kuthampully in Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur respectively, failed to encourage private entrepreneurship in tune with the globalised age. Consequently, it lagged behind in the adaptation of new technologies, designs, and marketing strategies to tap into the global market that would have turbocharged its growth.

Most of the five handloom cooperative societies are reliant on cash credit. With Hantex (Kerala State Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society Ltd), the apex body of primary handloom weavers’ co-operative societies, supposed to procure and pay for products from the cooperative societies, running up lakhs worth of dues, the societies are finding it difficult to pay the interest on loans and are getting plunged into deeper crisis, said Mr. Gothuruth.

Out of the collective turnover of around ₹3 crore registered by the five cooperative societies the previous year, nearly ₹2 crore were raked in during Onam. Societies remain hopeful of doing at least as much business this time as it managed during the last Onam.

Saritha C.S., secretary of the Kuriappilly Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society, rues how the exhibition organised by the Directorate of Handloom and Textiles at Ernakulathappan Ground during the Onam season has been discontinued over the last couple of years, despite bringing in good business. “Boutiques are approaching us with customised designs for the Onam season. While it may take five to six months of work, they often drop in at the eleventh hour, making it almost an impossible order to honour,” she said.