The country being hit badly with the sudden outbreak of corona. The rising impact of coronavirus pandemic, not only India is struggling to save every life, but also the whole world. The Fashion and Textile Industry would be most vulnerable to disruption from the outbreak since it relies so heavily on discretionary spending. The imports and exports have stopped because of which there would be an economic decline. The consensus is that the economy will decline, with many large-scale shifts that were already underway accelerating in the upheaval.
The country citizens are standing somewhere between life and livelihood. The initial phase can witness the decline of all domestic industries affecting each other in all different ways. The requirements of textile industry has already has skewed towards producing comfortable, breathable, waterproof, hygienic and cost-effective textiles. The well-experienced senior designers having having a high paid job in the fashion industry have started becoming unaffordable for the fashion industry. The hand-loom industry has been going through severe struggles and hardships due to the woven fabrics stacking, getting unsold. Our weavers are having hard times making livelihood and our buyers have fell gradually due to COVID 19 pandemic crisis.
The young designer from all different design colleges were significantly affected due to the pandemic situation, across the country. The standing on a lane of difficulty in adjusting it priorities and the finance structure. The traditional classes became modern classes, the doubt sessions turned into long hour phone calls, the intra class relationship has been nothing but zoom class, the friendship circles have been taken up by group video calls, the tea corners have been replaced by home kitchens, the gym workout sessions have been home yoga, the cinema tickets been taken by Netflix and chill. All the majestic sites we have seen , is now treated as the claustrophobic spaces. The only seek at this moment is a hope of an expected future, positiveness and a priceless moment to breath in a no mask zone.
While the whole of this situation has turned into an agony, the textile ministry has introduced many several decisions in interest of the future designers. The FDCI ( fashion design council) decided to help hand-loom weavers and the upcoming designers through the new-found Covid-19 Support Fund. The All india handloom and handicraft board has decided “a systematic rationalization of government bodies in consonance with Minimum Government and Maximum Governance” which can lead to an effective and efficient fund allotment to our weavers. Smriti Irani has proposed a plan to develop 10 Craft and Handloom Villages in the country so that tourists from across the globe can visit them and learn the rich legacy of Indian weavers and lend support to the Make in India initiative. The steps taken are oriented towards promotion of hand-loom and handicraft, better livelihood to the weavers and eliminate any quests for middle man involvements.
Now, if we can join all these points there is definitely a message that is exhorted to the general society that this is the moment when we have to go back to indigenous heritage, this is the time when we have to embrace our hand-loom and handicraft sector. When the petrol prices are on hike is also an indicator of the economy going back to its normalcy. The moment is definitely going to experience a rise in demand and production. The economy is expected to come together and support the messages like “vocal for local”, “make in India”, and “i wear handloom”.
There is a wide possibility of creation of employment opportunities in design sector in the upcoming projects related to handloom and handicraft, the vaccant jobs in the design companies probably needs some freshers who can be well afforded by the design companies, there are weavers will be having better living conditions and probably the ray of sun has already started knocking our doors while the co-vaccine is on its way.
