Today, in Odisha there are about 44,000 handlooms and 1 lakh weavers remaining, with the numbers reducing by the day. Large hordes of weavers have been reduced to breaking stones in quarries, pulling rickshaws & trolleys, selling vegetables on the streets, etc. To add to the woes of the weavers due to neo-liberalism, older problems like poor wages, feudal master-wage-weaver relations, and stiff competition from powerlooms, untapped markets and consumer ignorance add to the poor socio-economic conditions of the weavers. Read More at Odisha Renaissance.
Odisha Renaissance: Reviving Languishing Crafts
