Law doesn't help: Around 15 years ago, the Union government had passed a law in the Parliament mandating that handloom products cannot be manufactured in power looms. To compete with them, we are now forced to lower our prices and spend more on marketing," he said. A machine-made shawl might be available at for Rs 150, but we cannot afford to sell even plain handloom shawls for less than Rs 300. "Our hand-woven products have their own attraction and reflect tradition, but they can certainly not compete when it comes to prices. Gopal Sharma, another shawl seller in Kullu, says that with shawls from Ludhiana offering variety of colours, designs and cheap prices, they are fighting a lost battle. "It is not just high cost of raw material and low profit which makes survival on weaving shawls difficult for us, the competition posed by machine-made shawl has made it even more difficult," says Ludar Chand from Lag valley. Weavers say that earning from a shawl depends on the design and it ranges between Rs 100 and Rs 1000 per shawl. "Unable to distinguish between the original and the fake, tourists are mostly going for machine-made Ludhiana shawls," she says. Today, they have captured almost 50% of the market, alleges Jyoti Thakur, a shawl maker. Fake Kullu shawls manufactured in Ludhiana's power looms are believed to have first made inroads into Kullu around two decades back. According to a government estimate, there are around 700 shawl industries in Kullu district at present. These shawls are manufactured on machines using computer designs. While some reputed industries are still manufacturing original shawls, most have become dependent on supplies from Ludhiana. On her request, a local weaver wove a shawl that later paved way for commercial manufacturing of Kullu shawls. A popular folklore about the origin of contemporary patterns in Kullu shawl is that renowned actor Devika Rani, who was also the daughter-in-law of celebrated Russian painter Nicholas Roerich who had settled in Kullu, had come to the town in 1942.
Popular worldwide for their patterns and designs, Kullu shawls remain in great demand among tourists who want to take them back as souvenirs. Even big cooperative societies such as Bhuttico, with an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore, want the state government to save the handloom industry from the onslaught of machine-made shawls reaching Kullu and other parts of country under the banner of Kullu shawls. It is not only weavers who are worried about their future.
Now only cooperative societies and commercial shawl industries are into the business of manufacturing Kullu shawls," she adds. People are slowly giving up weaving and opting for other jobs. Guddi Devi says that until some years ago, income from weaving shawls was decent, but across the last few years, it has been difficult to make both ends meet as shopkeepers are placing very few orders with those of her ilk and they now find it more convenient to make bulk orders for power loom products that come in attractive colours and designs. Life has become difficult for her and more than 20,000 other weavers of the district as fake Kullu shawls being made in Ludhiana flood the district. "Machine-made shawls have ruined us," she laments. The finesse of her weave, beautiful and varied geometrical patterns were known in the village. Until some years ago, 58-year-old Guddi Devi of Surad village in Kullu was extremely proud of her shawl-making skills.
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