Weaving business suffered heavily during COVID-19, says Prerona Das Roy

Handloom weaving is a traditional craft and it is one of the smallest components of the textile Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The Covid outbreak and lockdown wreaked havoc on the micro-businesses, causing consumer demand to fall and hurting the garment sector as a whole.

Many loom workers left for their hometowns and did not return, causing hardship for handloom owners. The looms began to sit idle, and debt began to mount.

Around 4.5 crore people are working in India's textile sector, including 35.22 lakh handloom workers. In 2018-19, the sector provided 7% of total industry output (by value). In the fiscal year 2018-19, the Indian textiles and apparel industry contributed 2% to GDP, 12% to export earnings, and 5% of global textiles and apparel trade. India exported textile items worth Rs. 1.77 lakh crore (US$ 23.84 billion) between January and July 2021, up 52.6 percent from the same time previous year and 13.7 percent higher than the pre-pandemic level of 2019.

The art of spinning and weaving by hand has always been an extraordinary skill to human. Over years this art has been modernized but still, the art of handwork remains the same - exclusive and exquisite. One of those exquisite skills refers to the art of making a Muslin.

“In handloom Hand Spinning plays an important role for sustainable lifestyle without which the heritage fabric like muslin cannot be made with the use of machines. Thus, one needs to appreciate and respect the value of this cloth and the people behind who are making such products. My work is to show the ‘behind the scenes’ through digital and promote this cloth through various ways possible, be it marketing or through digitalization or by physical sale, etc,” says Prerona Das Roy. She also says “Jaise boond boond se Sagar Banta hain’ similarly smallest of the smallest contribution also can make a big change and that’s how I exist here.”