In today’s Finshots, we tell you the story of the Khadi, the freedom fabric

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Now, on to today’s story.

The Story

In FY24, Khadi achieved a remarkable milestone. ₹1.5 lakh crores worth of Khadi products were sold across the world. That’s a jaw-dropping 400% increase compared to a decade ago. But it’s not just sales that have skyrocketed. Production has surged by 300%, hitting ₹1 lakh crores. And employment in the industry has jumped by an impressive 80%, creating 10 lakh new jobs.

This is precisely what ‘Make in India’ stands for ― producing more within the country, creating jobs and becoming self-sufficient. It’s the kind of progress that Mahatma Gandhi would likely be proud of if he were alive today.

And to do it with Khadi, well, that's extra special.

Because Khadi isn’t just a fabric that helped us fight for freedom; it has evolved over the years, modernising and becoming a fashion icon.

Khadi has even graced the runways at Lakme Fashion Week. Designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla are creating magic with it for the celebrity elite.

But it’s not just celebrities. Young folks are embracing Khadi too. It’s a fabric that’s stood the test of time, keeping you cool in summer and warm in winter. And now, new-age companies are tapping into their creative side to make Khadi even more appealing to the younger generation. The industry’s turnover is so impressive that it can rival big players like FMCG giants or PSU banks. For context, banks like Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank only crossed the ₹1 lakh crore income mark last year. So, Khadi’s achievement is nothing short of extraordinary.

That might make you think that the Khadi revolution is bettering lives of the artisans and weavers. After all, job creation and increased sales should mean higher incomes and greater self-sufficiency, right? It sounds a lot like Gandhian economics coming to life — minimising wants, fostering self-reliance and promoting a homemade culture.

But the reality is a bit more complicated.

While Khadi’s popularity is on the rise, the benefits of this growth aren’t trickling down to the people who actually make Khadi. Despite the support artisans and weavers receive, there are still challenges that hinder their progress.

Let’s break it down.

Khadi became a symbol of self-sufficiency and a weapon in the fight for freedom during colonial rule as we already noted. Before the British arrived, India produced 25% of the world’s textiles. This is one of the reasons why Europeans were so interested to trade with India.

But trade was just a pretext. They saw India’s hardworking hands and cheap labour and made colonisation their primary goal. This was at a time when Europe was industrialising, and machine-made textiles (with Indian prints like Calico) began showing up on the market. Britain saw an opportunity here and began shipping raw cotton from India. They used cotton to make finished goods and export them back to India with relaxed duties. Meanwhile, they imposed draconian taxes on Indian clothing exports, essentially decimating our textiles industry. All this allowed British-made goods to dominate the market.

This exploitation sparked Gandhian economics. Gandhi spun his own dhoti on the charkha and inspired Indians to spin their own clothes, adopt Indian-made textiles and become self-sufficient. These efforts, along with other non-violent and non-cooperation measures, eventually led to India’s independence.

However, by the time India was free, its share in global textile exports had plummeted to just 2%.

Post-independence, India was economically drained. To revive the nation, industrialisation and mechanisation had to be prioritised, with the government promoting powerloom-made cloth to boost Indian textiles.

Sure, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) was established in 1956 to promote Khadi and other village industries. But it took a long while for Khadi to gain prominence and even though it's witnessing a resurgence of sorts, there is a duality here that hasn't gone unnoticed.

The growth and glamour we see in the headlines don’t reflect the reality for many Khadi weavers. Despite the increased sales and job creation, their lives haven’t improved much.

For instance, spinners make up about 78% of the artisans in the Khadi sector, but their wages are barely enough to survive. And Khadi, by definition, is handwoven, labour-intensive textile, leading to slow production. Now, traditional charkhas produce only 2 hanks (a unit of measurement for yarn length) of cloth per day. And the New Model Charkha (NMC) increases productivity to 20 hanks per day. While the KVIC’s minimum wage rate of ₹7.5 per hank translates to a meagre ₹150 per day for NMC users, traditional spinners, however, earn just ₹15 a day! To make a sustainable income, these artisans often take their work home, putting in long hours beyond the average eight-hour workday. Given the financial strain, many are forced to seek better-paying jobs in agriculture or construction.

Their situation could improve if they could work directly with private companies that are revitalising Khadi. But artisans face hurdles here too. To sell their products directly to customers, they need a Khadi mark certificate from the KVIC. This requirement discourages entrepreneurship, as it could potentially reduce the KVIC’s influence over the Khadi industry.

Moreover, there’s a significant disconnect between the industry’s growth and the reality faced by the Departmental Trading Units (DTUs) established by KVIC to manage production and sales. A recent audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that of the 92 DTUs created over the years, only 18 were operational as of 2021, with 74 becoming defunct. And KVIC doesn’t seem to have a clear understanding of why this happened.

Marketing is another area where KVIC could improve. About a decade ago, KVIC took Fab India to court for using the Khadi tag on its clothes without the proper certification. Fab India was allegedly passing off mill-made textiles as Khadi. Instead of dragging this dispute to court, KVIC could have explored a partnership with Fab India, leveraging its potential to elevate Khadi further. Connecting KVIC’s artisans with companies like FabIndia could transform the landscape for Khadi weavers.

The challenges don’t end there. The Khadi industry also faces a new battle with the National Flag Code. To support the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign in 2021, the government amended the Flag Code of India to allow the national flag to be made from machine-made cotton, polyester, wool, silk, handspun, handwoven or Khadi bunting flags.

This amendment suggests that despite promoting Khadi, the government isn’t fully helping support hand-spun cloth. Imagine the boost to the Khadi industry if the government had planned ahead and pre-ordered Khadi flags for the campaign. This could have revitalised the industry without amending the Flag Code and given Gandhian economics the respect it deserves.

Now, we aren’t saying that we should abandon mechanised industries entirely. But we have to remember that a significant portion of India’s workforce still relies on age-old Gandhian principles. Neglecting them means denying Khadi the true recognition it deserves, even as models strut down runways wearing this fabric of freedom.

Until next time…

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