The ancient art of 'khaddi' is becoming extinct due to lack of skilled workers and exploitation by fake exhibition workers. Khaddi involves weaving coarse cloth materials into clothing and other fabrics. Kamalia, Pakistan. 28/1/2007.
Handloom (khaddi) is the centuries old method of weaving khaddar(coarse cloth), which remained in use for tailoring and for weaving bedsheets till two decades ago. Later it was replaced by the machine (powerloom) that made khaddar or cloth. Kamalia is one of the top khaddar weaving cities in Pakistan and also internationally, but these days khaddar is weaved only on powerlooms. Still "khais" and "dari" for beds are made on handlooms only.
There are still hundreds of handlooms in Kamalia but owners of this small scale cottage industry were disappointed as the government gave no financial assistance to them to upgrade their business. During a survey, Nazar Din, (65 years old) whom once owned six handlooms, claimed that handloom owners were never helped by the government to keep this traditional type of cloth-weaving industry in business. He said that handloom owners were being repeatedly looted during last few years by so called exhibition arrangers who received money from them for inviting them to set up stalls (in exhibitions) only to be refused entry to the exhibitions.
He added that 30 years ago a "dari" was sold at Rs 30 but now it was sold between Rs 300 and Rs 400. However, in financial terms, they modern day workers still make less. A handloom worker, Muhammad Anwar stated that only experts were given jobs on handlooms but the low wage had forced the workers to find other jobs instead of working on the handloom. It seems that the time will approach when handloom owners will have to leave their businesses. Mainly because of the non-availability of skilled workers and secondly, low wage incentives. Loom owners demanded that government should give attention to this business otherwise it will only read in history books.
