Suddenly we went to visit our friend's house in Sirajganj without any plan. While visiting there we saw many small textile industries which surprised me a lot. In fact, before this I never knew about the textile industry in Sirajganj. As far as the road was passed, I could see only small size textile industries around. In Belkuchi, there are many small textile industries in an entire village.
We went out to see the Al-Aman Bahela Khatun mosque in Belkuchi, but on the way we saw the textile industries. Then we decided to visit this industries after visiting the mosque.
After a while we reached Tat-Polli. We stopped our car next to a large industry. However, it was noon when we arrived, and almost all the industries were shut down. Later we find out that we reached there on lunch time.
After a long search we find an industry and with the permission of the authorities we enter. The machines we've only known about so far are the ones we've seen in this industry. In this industry, they are using shuttle loom to produce woven fabric. They are mainly produce woven fabric to make Sari and Lungi. But all those machines are not modern type. Shuttle loom is a loom system which was used in around 20/30 years ago in industries.
In this little industry 70% of the process are done manually. Like warp beam producing which is used as input in shuttle loom. Also we see the manually dyeing process. They completed yarn scouring & bleaching process and makes it ready for coloring of yarn. Then they color the yarn in bath, which is heated by fire. They make a solution by giving proper dyes and chemicals. After dyeing they dry the yarns in the sun. Finally, those yarns are ready for the weaving process. Those yarns have good light and wash fastness, which impresses me a lot.
Weaving Process: (Lungi Making)
Manually Yarn Dyeing :
Colored yarn
But there is a bad news. After talking with the owners of those industries we known their bad situation. The weaving villages of Belkuchi and Enayetpur in Sirajganj are on the verge of closing down due to increase in prices of essential textile equipment. The weavers of these villages have suffering a lot due to the rise in prices of yarn, fabric, dyes and chemicals. In that situation, the knocking sound of the artists' weaving seems to be lost a lot. We seen many industries are already closed.
Weavers say the price of yarn has almost doubled in the last years. Meanwhile, despite the increasing in the price of raw materials, the price of manufactured cloth has not increased. As a result, weavers have lost a lot of capital. Meanwhile, mill owners are demanding the help from the government.