Though weaving is an ancient profession, it is losing its charm due to many reasons. One of the primary reasons is the drudgery involved in it. Globalization brought in many jobs in service sector, which on the face of it appear lucrative and attract many youth from the weaving families. These young men migrate to cities and nearby towns leaving their age old family tradition and jeopardizing the future of the weaving traditions across the country. Many a youth argue that with less drudgery they will be able to earn the same amount as that weaving for a month.

While Industrialization brought standing looms and power looms to replace the pit looms made by people in their houses, this number is restricted to top 10 % of weavers across the country. Many still use pit looms and to some extent standing looms. Graduating to standing looms will take place only when substantial advantages accrue to the weaver when he invests that much money in changing the loom. Marginal weavers (almost over 85 %) cannot afford power looms. Purchasing stand looms which are more efficient than pit looms will be resorted to only when definite advantages accrue to the weaver over the pit loom.

The scenario in the weaving sector is unchanged for over three decades. The migration of young weavers to cities and towns is continuing posing a potential threat of extinction of handlooms in this country. We need to solutions to arrest this trend.

Chintakindi Mallesham, a renowned grassroots innovator and son of a weaver family from Pochampally tradition living in Village Aler, dist Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh has been working on an idea to reduce the drudgery on stand looms to the weavers. He believed that a substantial percentage of weavers can be restrained from migration if the drudgery in weaving is reduced. He focused on this aspect and relentlessly worked on providing a method to ease the effort to weavers. He identified that weaver has to lift weight of approximately 30 Kg with his feet for 9000 times to weave a sari. This is a quite a drudgery and if this area can be addressed. Weavers would feel more comfortable and will be tempted weave. In fact, weavers are comfortable in their villages performing the traditional weaving rather than migrating to villages. It is the drudgery and less money which is bothering them. Mallesham endeavored to address this issue and found a unique solution which reduces drudgery by 95%.

Mallesham developed a “Semi automatic device for pedal operation in standing looms”which replaces the foot pedal operation manually. The device enables to provide same movement and lifting 30 Kg weight by simply pressing a button by the foot compared to complete lifting of the weight. This is achieved by a set of power operated linkages and motor and other accessories. This device is retrofitted to the standing loom and also can be incorporated to new looms during their manufacture.

A revolutionary innovation with extremely high impact and would be the precursor to reviving the handloom tradition to higher levels by restraining the youth to move to cities for alternate cushy employment. The availability of weavers will lift the handloom industry to a higher growth path and will ensure livelihood to many in the villages relieving the cities with migration related issues.

This device is useful universally to all the standing looms across the world and brings lot of comfort to the weavers improving their productivity and quality of life. The rate of production of 8 saris per month by a weaver on a standing loom could now change to more as the weaver is not tired and has sufficient energy to sit at loom for linger hours. This results in higher incomes to the weaver families and also increases overall production of handlooms in the country at least by 25 %. Such an impact will have a multiplier effect on the economy of the nation as handloom sector employs millions of people. It is for the eminent economists to assess the social, economical, cultural and financial benefits accrue by incorporating Mallesham’s “Semi automatic device for pedal operation in standing looms”.

A single, less educated, and from humble background grassroots innovator single handedly can bring about such a major improvement in the growth of the Nation affecting the lives of many millions, is an outstanding achievement. Ch Mallesham deserves recognition and encouragement for his contribution to the weaving community and also to the Nation on a sustained basis.