Govt staff urged to wear Handloom Cloth once in a Week

Chenkumar handloom weavers Coop production and Marketing society, Chennimalai, president S Mani appealed to the government to direct government staff to wear handloom cloth once in a week.
The only society in the state  that owns mobile showroom is Chenkumartex. 

The showroom in the modern vehicle was presented by the government nearly 4 years  back. It has a stock of nearly Rs 5 lakh and it was moving all over TN, AP and Karnataka to sell bed sheets, bedspreads and towels etc. Its sales is around Rs 19 lakh per annum. Normally, the government offers 20 percent rebate and 30 percent festival offer from September to January end for cloths sales. 
The society has 14 showrooms and annual turnover is around Rs 9 cr. Of 736 members, 548 were producing cloth. 
 

If husband and wife work for nearly 9-10 hours, they can get around Rs 400 per day. In farm work one can get Rs 700 per day easily. The present rule offered 10 percent DA and wage hike. But, it was not adequate. 
So, many quit the field and now aged persons were alone working while their wards studied well and went to other jobs. On the other, the price of Handloom cloth rose steeply due to rise in production cost. So, the growth in sales is nearly 5 percent only.
 

The cost of quality well designed handloom jacquard bedsheet is 500 Rs 850. But, the cost of bedsheet made in powerloom is much less. But, it is not that much quality. However, people opt powerloom bedsheet due to low cost. If the same trend continues, handloom sector would perish. 
When IAS officer Sahayam was Cooptex MD, he pleaded to the government staff to wear handloom cloth once in a week. Such kind of order should be passed by the government itself to promote handloom cloth among public. Lest, lakhs of poor weavers depending on the sector for their livelihood would suffer much in future, he feared.