The ongoing exploitation of women weavers,

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:45:50 +0000

by D. Narasimha Reddy

Violence against women has been a constant, in various societies, for different reasons, across different time periods. However, in most places, awareness and networking among women has been helpful. There have been individuals and organization, who have been and are playing their role in reducing violence against women.

D. Narasimha Reddy represents the Centre for Handloom Information and Policy Advocacy based in IndiaHowever, VAW is set to rise for different reasons. Global trade, as defined by the WTO, has been distorting societies and destroying livelihoods. Pitting livelihoods against each other across the countries, trade-centric policies and programmes have been inducing situations which enable the growth of violence against women.

The handloom sector is also part of this phenomenon. Women handloom weavers are now increasingly facing violence, previously unknown in most of their homes. For ages, women in the homes of handloom weavers have been working with their partners, inside their homes, on various production functions. However, this work has been traditionally seen as part of the family engagement, and was never recognized an "income activity". Women's work increased as handloom production graduated from household production to commercial production. Despite this change, in many places, the work of women weavers was still considered as supplementary activity. There has been no recognition to this work, neither in terms of praise or costs. As a result, this production relation became a part of the exploitation process. Exploitation of women weavers did not stop at this process level. As the handloom production became commercialized and more organized in terms of a sectoral activity, exploitation and subjugation of women weavers continued on an equal scale.

With globalization and liberalization of trade, the handloom sector became prone to discriminatory policy changes, and unfair market competition. This has induced further stress on handloom livelihoods.It is widely known that unfair and unregulated competition leads to price competition and depressing wages. Many entrepeneurs and enterprises resort to cost-cutting. Read the rest of this post...

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The ongoing exploitation of women weavers,