Once the heritage of undivided Bengal, handloom industry in Bangladesh is on rapid decline!
As per a report (Handloom Census 2018) released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) recently, the number of handlooms in Bangladesh has fallen by more than a third in the last 15 years, largely because of the sector’s push towards mechanisation and labour shortage.
Besides, low profit margin, lack of capital and problems related to marketing were blamed for this rapid decline of the handloom industry in Bangladesh.
As per the census, in 2003, there were 183,512 handloom units, the number of which fell 36.79 per cent to 116,006 last year.
The BBS carried out the third countrywide census on handloom last year. The previous two censuses were conducted in 1990 and 2003, respectively.
According to the new census report, employment also fell drastically over the years. In 2013, the total number of people employed in the handloom sector stood at 888,115, which declined to 301,157 in 2018.