SRINAGAR: Kashmir Pashmina Karigar Union (KPKU) has asked state government to implement the ban on spinning machines and power looms fully in order to save the ‘livelihood of hundreds of poor weavers and spinner’ using traditional handlooms and spinners.
The union in a statement issued on Monday said they will go to any extent to stop its production on machines and power looms that have dented the income of the people associated with traditional spinning and weaving.
The Union which held demonstration at Press enclave ‘over the government’s unconstructive role to help thousands of workers who where into making of handmade pashmina shawls and patronizing the machine made pashmina manufacturers’.
The group in a statement said that thousands of women were associated with spinning the wool by hand and later its processing also involved handlooms that made the Kashmir shawl famous is now is completely replaced by machines.
KPKU said due to influx of these machines for making yarn and then shawls, thousand of women have lost their only means of livelihood.
The union said that the government should act against some of the unscrupulous elements that want to earn millions overnight at the cost of poor artisans of the state.
The introduction of machines according to the union has adversely affected the craft and distribution of local vendors.
The union blamed that these people using machines have adulterated the raw material and the shawls that are produced can give a bad name to the centuries old shawl industry of Kashmir.