Demographic profile of women involved in reeling and weaving of Manipur

Pages: 201-204
Kangjam Victoria Devi and S. Visalakshi Rajeswari (Department of Resource Management, Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

From time immemorial handloom industry in Manipur has been playing a vital role in the state economy. It is well known as a highly employment oriented and a low capital intensive activity, and as an effective tool for rural development with overwhelming number of advantages. It transfers wealth from richer sections of society to poorer section since, silk is consumed mostly by affluent people and the money so spent on purchase of silk is distributed among the sericulturists, reelers, twisters, weavers and traders in the order of 51.5, 6.2, 8.2, 14.5, and 19.5 per cent respectively (Nair, 1998) who are essentially women labourers. Yet, the State continues to be socio-economically backward with 34 per cent of the people living below the poverty line (BPL). (www.manipuronline.com & www.tradechakra.com/indian-economy/per capita income 2005-06). This paper attempts to highlight the demographic profiles of the Women involved in Silk reeling and silk weaving activities in Imphal -East and Imphal -West Districts of Manipur. The results reveal that almost 70 per cent of the families irrespective of the vocation adopted by the samples were found to fall in the low income strata making it clear that none of the jobs are lucrative.