Assessment of socio-economic status of Pochampally Ikat handloom weavers

Abstract

Handloom sector is an important second position employer in the country after agriculture by contributing to nearly 30 % of total exports. Pochampally handloom weaving is very popular in Telangana state. Most of the pochampally ikat weavers are located in Nalgonda distrtict. Weaving is a family enterprise where right from the child to the old man in the family get involved in various weaving related activities. Hence a descriptive research design was adopted to study the socio-economic status of ikat weavers. A simple random sampling technique was adopted for selecting a total sample of 30 weavers consisting of 15 males and 15 females. Self-developed interview schedule was used to elucidate the information required. Income, educational qualification, and profession were taken into consideration to compute the socio economic status as per modified Kuppuswamy’s socio economic scale 2018. Data was analyzed by frequency, percentage and correlation. The results of the study revealed that majority of female workers (40%) were below 30 years old and about 33.3 per cent male workers belonged to the age group of 31- 40 years. Majority of female workers (86.7%) and 80 per cent of male workers belonged to upper lower economic status. Relationship between socio-economic status of the weavers and personal variables of the study was assessed and it was found that there was a significant positive relationship between socio economic status with age, educational qualification and working hours at 0.01 level, because as age increases they gain more knowledge which in turn helps in earning more income, so their socio-economic status will also automatically increase. Similarly if their educational qualification was high then their socio economic status will also improve. Likewise if the weavers work for more hours then it affects their socio economic status.