Hand loom Factories of old Delhi.
The centuries old art of handloom weaving is dying a slow death because weavers are unable to make ends meet as they earn a very low wage despite working in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. The average weaver is said to earn 250r per day and working without a contract which makes them easy to dismiss – there are new workers starting every day.
Increasingly, weavers are being forced to look for other trades.. Even with government subsidies the weavers find it difficult to survive. There are said to be 2.9 million handloom weavers but this is a drop of 16% since the last census 13 years ago.
Sadly, for the handloom weavers the power loom now seems to be the future.