HANDLOOM INDUSTRY IN WEST BENGAL: A STUDY

Handloom Industry provides employment to the seasonal unemployment or under employment work force in the agricultural sector. It uses the ideal working capacity of rural household women workforce without hampering their household chores. It still plays a very important role in the national economy of India in generation of employment, income and foreign exchange earnings. The industry is providing direct and indirect employment to 12.5 million persons in Indian decentralized sector. (Annual Report 2002-03 Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India). This sector also earns a good amount of foreign currency through exporting the handloom goods. Exporting of handloom goods increases year after year that create a good balance of payment. This paper tries to examine labour process, pattern of growth and the economics of handloom industry in West Bengal. Number of workers, number of hired workers, man-days, fixed capital, total capital, value of output, value added and earnings from labour significantly vary across the types of production organization. Independent units possess higher amounts of these variables than cooperative or tied units. Coefficients of variation of these variables per independent unit are generally higher than that those per other unit.