Manamedu Trichy

The main occupation of People living here is Agriculture and Handloom Weaving. Having approximately 3000 men and 1500 women weavers with average earning of US$ 1.35 per day for a family. depending availability of work. They have mastery on handloom weaving of finer yarn. Products manufactured by them are fine and of good quality specially meant for Indian traditional Sarees but lack of demand in Indian market due to import of polyester autoloom fabrics and yarns has made them to suffer. They now survive mainly because of exports of home furnishings.

Mediator (master weaver) plays important role in procuring and sending back to the exporters or other buyers. His role is to collect dyed yarn and distribute to weavers and send back fabric to the customer. Mainly wage rate is based on the demand and supply but involvement of master weaver most of the times make sure that weaver does not earn more than the earlier wage.

Almost all houses in Manamedu have one long, rectangular room with an elevated platform and a thari, the in-house handloom machine. Once a thriving handloom centre, Manamedu has deteriorated from the nearly 400 handlooms it supported even a decade ago into around 127 looms.

The Manamedu Saliyar Handloom Weaver Cooperative Production and Sales Society is a two-roomed office that manages Manamedu’s handloom production, worth around 12 lakh a year. It is through this society that co-optex outsources its weaving work to traditional handloom weavers like P. Meganathan. Co-optex pays the weavers Rs.840 every 10 days when they collect the finished pieces. "Nowadays, many handloom weavers have closed down their looms to take up jobs offered under the MNREGS program, or at construction sites, where they earn more." Though the industry witnessed an export boom post 2000, the demand hit rock bottom in 2006 when several export orders were redirected to China.

• GeoHack - Manamedu, Tiruchirapalli