Post News Network
Rasol, March 1: A weavers’ cooperative society established in 1955 here in Dhenkanal district is lying in a state of neglect as the weavers fight to earn a livelihood due to administrative apathy.
The 60-year-old ‘Rasol Tantubaya Sahajog Samiti’, registered by the state handloom and textile department, was once a hub of intense activities and the hand-made clothes spun by its members found wide acceptance among people all over the state.
With passage of time, the centre has lost its significance with the state government not interested in patronizing the society.
Many of the weavers attached to the society are now living under dire straits and are working as labourers for a living. Sources said the society had 100 weavers on its rolls as its members and received government support after it was registered as a society. The state government provided it bank loans, cotton kits and spinning wheels following which the weavers started producing lungi, bed-sheets, napkins and sarees.
However, the good days were short-lived. All attempts made for the society’s revival bore no fruit and it was finally closed in 1980. Some of the frontline weavers regrouped about 100 weavers and made efforts to revive the society which was reconstituted in 1985 and Prahllad Patra was appointed its secretary. Patra provided weavers with cotton and kits following which the society started making profits. Things changed after various types of machine-made clothes flooded the market. Hand-made clothes failed to find customers. The state government made no efforts to train weavers about modern
textile manufacturing techniques.
Efforts were made to bring quality clothes from Manibandh to trade through the
society, but even that failed to keep it ticking. Patra said the society would have survived if the state government had taken interest in upgrading the weavers with new techniques of weaving. Additional director (textiles) Santosh Kumar Parida said the government is prepared to help them, but the weavers have not approached them for help.