Question

In what ways are weavers dependent on cloth merchants?

Answer 1

Hint: Garment production is a cumbersome process and it takes a sequence of steps to get ready to wear clothes from the raw materials. Fabrics have to first be woven by hand or by machine. This would include interlacing two or more sets of yarns or threads that then form the cloth. A weaving tool is called a loom— hand loom those woven manually and power loom those woven by machine. The history of weavers in India traces back to the Indus Valley Civilisation.

Complete step by step solution:
With the dawn of the industrial age and the increase in the use of machinery, the condition of handloom weavers has worsened. With the import of cheap foreign clothes, the market for Indian weavers has declined and produced the same amount of cloth with prices low enough to compete puts them at a great loss. As their socio-economic condition declines, they depend on cloth merchants mostly localised to provide them with a market for their handwoven fabrics. The Indian Handloom industry was valued at approximately $344 million in 2019 and it accounts for 4 percent of the country’s GDP. It is the second most employed sector after agriculture. And thus it is important to protect this industry.

Note: The Swadeshi movement was led by Mahatma Gandhi in 1906 in which Indians all over the country boycotted foreign items especially clothing and resorted to weaving their fabrics to avoid importing from Britain. This popularised the charkha (spinning wheel) and indigenous clothing and increased the demand for Indian Textiles.