Indian weavers driven to suicide

Power-loom owners are selling machinery as scrap

By Omer Farooq in Sricilla, Andhra Pradesh

A crisis in the weaving industry in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is forcing workers there to resort to a drastic solution - taking their own lives.

As many as 90 weavers have committed suicide in the past four years - half of them during the last 18 months alone.

It is a market driven crisis

Textile commissioner BP Acharya

This in a state at the forefront of an ambitious economic reform programme, which some analysts argue has contributed to the crisis.

The small dusty town of Sricilla, in the underdeveloped Telangana region of the state, was once known as the "hub of wealth".

Called the "mini-Manchester" of south India, it has today become synonymous with death.

Officials and weavers say that a crisis in the power-loom industry and consequent economic hardship and unemployment are the primary causes.

Mounting debts

Sixty-eight year-old Rangawa and five-year old Shanti Priya are two faces of this tragedy.

Five-year-old Shanti Priya faces a bleak future

Rangawa's son Sambaiah hanged himself in his two-room house last month as he was not able to earn enough to feed his six-member family.

Shanti Priya's father was unable to find work, provide food to his family and clear his debts.

He entered into a suicide pact with his family including his aged parents and two daughters.

But Shanti Priya escaped as she refused to drink juice mixed with poison.

Today, she is the only survivor of the family and faces a bleak and uncertain future.

Assistance

Initially, the state government was slow to react to the unfolding human disaster.

It was only after the suicide by Shanti Priya's family that the government rushed to the aid of the families of the dead weavers.

Profile

Andhra Pradesh has 75 million people and is the fifth largest Indian state

The state has 233,000 weavers

Of these 50,000 are power-loom weavers while others are handloom weavers

There are 40,000 power looms in the state

A quarter of them are in Sricilla, once known as 'mini-Manchester'

Each family was given financial assistance of 10,000 rupees ($213).

All the poor families in the town were also provided 10 kilos of rice free as a relief measure.

But not everyone felt the government's moves would help.

"This is not going to end our woes. We do not want rice. We want work," said Upendramma, whose husband had killed himself.

Even as the deaths evoked an outcry from the public and political parties, the state government said it was drawing up a long-term plan for rehabilitating the weavers.

The government is stepping in to help the victims' families

"It is a market driven crisis," says BP Acharya, the commissioner for handloom and textiles.

"There is no demand for the cloth they produce because it is not of a good quality and it is unable to compete with the mill cloth which is of a higher quality."

Policy shifts

However, power-loom owners like 36-year-old Shyam blames the government for the situation.

"The problem no doubt started with the fall in the demand in market. But we could have still survived but for the wrong policies of government," he says.

This is a fall-out of the WTO agreement which has made foreign imports cheap

District administrator Sabyasachi Ghosh

The weavers say that electricity tariffs were increased by more than 300% last year.

Similarly, the sales tax on raw material is much higher in Andhra Pradesh then in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra.

"The high cost of inputs is also one of the reasons for the crisis in the industry," admitted deputy superintendent of police Murlidhar Rao, who is part of a voluntary campaign to counsel the weavers.

"Many of these people are debt ridden. They have not been able to clear the huge loans they had taken from bank and money lenders for setting up these plants and it is causing more stress and pressure on them," says R Saraiah, the revenue divisional officer in Sricilla.

Power-loom workers blame the government for the crisis

The situation is so bad that power-loom owners are selling machines worth 30,000 rupees ($640) for 5,000 rupees ($107) as scrap.

Officials say they are implementing a strategy to confront the problem.

The weavers are being persuaded to change their trade and have been offered training in other fields such as apparel and garment making and tailoring.

"We have already set up one training centre in Sricilla and several weavers are being taken to [the] Hyderabad apparel park for training and rehabilitation," BP Acharya said.

But others say that it is not that simple, arguing that global changes are to blame.

"This is a fall-out of the WTO agreement which has made foreign imports cheap in the country.

"The work we should have done during last 10 years to prepare the country for this situation, will now have to be done all of a sudden," district administrator, Sabyasachi Ghosh says.

Some - like police official Murlidhar Rao - believe it may already be too late.

"Now it is power loom sector," he says.

"Tomorrow it will be dairy and poultry. We will face more such crises in future."