Traditional Loom enables creating rich traditional designs and with its ethnic identity and quality. Besides, it is a big source of local employment, especially, for the working women population. However, weaving using traditional loom is a very tough task where the job is carried out sitting in an awkward situation for long hours. Both the legs and hands are working continuously during the weaving task leading to various musculoskeletal issues among the workers. So there is huge scope of improvement in the traditional loom setup to make its operations easier and efficient to use.
The project sanctioned by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) aims at addressing issues related to
- Working posture while weaving
- Engagement of legs and hands during weaving
- Speed of weaving operation
- Force required during weaving operation
The emphasis would be to relook and improve the present setup to increase the productivity of the workers without replacing the existing looms or compromising the ethnicity associated with the traditional loom or drastically changing the present weaving task. The handlooms could be operated in dual mode too. The increase in productivity will bring down the cost of production in the handloom sector and help in compete with its low cost market competitors.