the rich heritage of handloom products is one among the several factors which our country boasts of with only second to farming in terms of being the largest community of handloom weavers in india weve celebrated wearing it with pride for so many decades now however on this national handloom day it is not just about celebrating our pride but also throwing light on the dying tradition weavers plight and the threat they face from powerloom and westernisation chennai times speaks to people from the handloom industry to understand the revival processwhy the revival according to a recent data indian has 95 of all the handlooms in the world but at the same time the weavers and their traditional artistry have been diminishing drastically in the modern era it is noted that we may have lost several techniques over time many people from the handloom industry have been coming up with several initiatives santosh parekh of a popular city textile shop urges the need to bring to light the relevance of weaving and the support they deserve on the handloom revival santosh says weaving is an art that may not see another generation weaving itself is not something anybody can teach it is passed on through generations and we fear that the next set of weavers are not going to be there to take it forward to the subsequent generations this is one of the main reasons people have woken up jayasri samyukta iyer fashion designer and executive committee member of the craft council of india says fifty years back nearly every village in india had its own weaver textile embellisher etc today the numbers are down to 50 lakh weavers with each one looking for encouragement and a sustainable lifestyle there are a lot of traditions and techniques which are becoming irrelevant now and we have been working on the revival for so many years now this year we want to highlight three types of saris and the revival process the first one is kodalli karuppur sari from tamil nadu this one was used in the ancient times in thanjavur kingdom which was almost nonexistent now the second one is patteda anchu from karnataka and lastly gauda adivasi sari from goa each sari has an interesting history but sadly it is fading awayweavers plight is a social issue each sari has a story to tell almost every weaver would have gone through something to create a piece of beauty but today there is a lot that is being discussed about their plight santosh says weavers issue is a social issue they are ready to work for extensive hours at their convenience at home but the larger issue is that they are looked down uponsantosh adds today how difficult is it for us to find a carpenter it is the same with weavers we have to respect them their art and have to bring them to the limelight ahalya designer curator and founder of a popular silk and handloom store