Societal Sustainability of Handloom Sector in Tamil Nadu—A Case Study

Indian handloom sector is one of the age-old cottage industries. The sector provides millions of employments to rural regions of the country either directly or indirectly. This is considered one of the largest employment sectors next to agriculture. Handloom products occupy approximately 40% of the products produced in the Indian market. The handloom industries are termed as the art and craft sector, and it is a part of Indian heritage by representing the richness and diversity of our country. Among various states in India, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are the dominant states that produce more handloom products. In which, Tamil Nadu leads the market with a higher number of weavers and handlooms than other states. Though the handloom sector plays a vital role in the country's economies, the sector faces many serious issues like a lower price, higher market competition, antiquated technologies, an unorganised production system, low productivity range, etc. These challenges often affect the weaver’s livelihood due to the poor pricing and the sustainability of the handloom products in the market. Based on the current market situation, this study aimed to measure the various problems faced by the handloom weavers in the Coimbatore region of Tamil Nadu. Several prevailing issues were collected and surveyed among the weavers related to their importance in the sustainability of handloom products in the market. The problems are segmented as production related, sales and marketing related, weaver oriented and health related. The responses were recorded and ranked using the Hendry Garett ranking method to evaluate the ranking of the issue. The results identified the potential issues which affect the sustainability of the handloom sector in Tamil Nadu.