Overview of the Indian Power Loom Sector:

India manufactures 5% of cloth through organized sector, 20% through Handloom sector, 15% through knitting sector and 60% of Indian cloth is produced through decentralized power loom sector.

The decentralized powerloom sector is the lifeline of Indian Textile Industry. India is having approximately 19.42 lakhs of powerlooms weaving almost 19,000 million meters of fabric, and provides employment to more than 7 million workers. The industry now produces wide range of fabrics ranging from grey, printed fabric, dyed fabric, cotton fabric, various mix of cotton, synthetic, and other fibres. The country exports Rs. 44,000 million worth of goods to countries like U.S.A., France, Germany, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Italy etc.

Although the growth of power loom industry was slow initially; it has started gearing up now. Number of shuttle less looms has augmented to almost 50,000 and from this about 35,000 looms are working in the decentralized sector.

Most of the Power loom units are concentrated in semi urban, or rural area. Among all; Maharashtra has highest number of powerlooms amounting to approximately 8 lakhs of powerloom, Tamilnadu is second with 5 lakh units, and Gujarat ranks third with 4to4.5 lakh worth of power looms.

A modern loom at a powerloom factory

Powerloom sector of Bhiwandi:

Bhiwandi, known for its powerlooms is situated at about 30 kilometers away from Mumbai in Maharashtra state. Bhiwandi is a key textile center of western India.

Bhiwandi has approximately 6 lakhs powerlooms, which is 33% of countrys total powerlooms. Turnover of this segment is projected to be around Rs. 10,000 Crore annually. With approximately 1.6 lakh customers this industry is spread across 700 sq. km of area. Bhiwandis powerlooms support family of about 15 lakh workers; most of them being migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Nearly 40 % of the national production from the powerloom sector is contributed by this township.

Although in its early years, Bhiwandi entered into cloth making business with Handlooms, it slowly transformed itself into powerlooms hub. Powerloom industry of Bhiwandi started blossoming fully during era of 80s.

Majority of the powerlooms in Bhiwandi produce grey materials which are used as shirting and dress material later. Cloth produced in Bhiwandi is mainly consumed by Indian market as it is not up to the mark in the international market. One reason for this is the technology used. Most of the powerlooms in Bhiwandi is absolute and older, as manufacturer over here prefers low priced second hand powerlooms over new looms. Excluding some big players most of the units run in Bhiwandi are small scale units and could not afford to purchase or import high priced machinery.

This industry is also affected by insufficient power supply. Power consumption in Bhiwandi circle is around 2400 million units and more than 50% of this is consumed by Powerloom sector. Power cut has been a daily story of this region. Although regular supply of electricity is lifeline of this industry it is facing hard times as there is a load shedding of 9-10 hours and that to everyday. This is costing 40 crore of loss to the industry. Workers are being victim of this shortage as this is affecting there already low salaries. Apart from this cheaper products are flooding markets and industry is loosing out to them as due to above mentioned factors manufacturing cost of Bhiwandi powerloom sector is higher compared to low cost cloth manufacturing countries.