Handloom is one of the most popular and developed industries of Manipur, contributing significantly to the State’s income since times immemorial and also providing ample avenues of employment opportunities to the people. It ranks fourth in terms of the number of looms in the country and has more than 2.8 lakh looms with a weaver population of more than 4.62 lakhs. The traditional skill of handloom weaving is not only a matter of status symbol for the women-folk in the State but also is an indispensable aspect of their socio-economic life. And therefore, Manipur enjoys a distinct place among the Handloom zones in India.

Enterprise Name

Biren Innovative Power Loom

A resident of Manipur’s small town called Bishnupur, Biren Singh has been a keen innovator, always experimenting with the technology. Having been born and brought up in the state of Manipur, he understood the socio-economic status of the State and saw how the handloom industry played a big role in it. Every second house in Manipur including his own owned a traditional handloom and it has always been a very organic and pivotal part of their lives. The drawback, however, was the fact that it was a very labor-intensive job. And as most of the laborers were self-employed artisans carrying the profession out of their homes, it meant involving the entire family throughout all the pre, during, and post-loo m works.

To tackle this very problem, Biren Singh started experimenting and created his first prototype- a mechanized loom in 1993 which worked on the same principles of a traditional Manipuri shuttle loom (Yongkham), except that this new machine now runs on power. He created a fully automatic power shuttle loom that could run on a half HP motor. This meant that it was no more a labor-intensive job, it did not require any more than minimal involvement of not more than just one person, and the outcome was 25 to 50 times more than traditional shuttle looms. Biren’s innovative machine can weave 3 to 4 fabrics per hour whereas the traditional one could hardly make 1-2 fabrics in a day.

Challenges

• His power loom runs on electricity, while the entire State of Manipur experiences frequent and long-duration power cuts.

• The cost of his power loom is Rs. 1,85,000 and so it becomes difficult for marginalized weavers to afford the machine despite their requirements.

• Due to his own financial limitations, there was more demand for his machine than how many he could make.

AIC SELCO Foundation Intervention

Biren was provided with a list of machinery worth Rs. 6,38,380 which led to

• Increase in his machine’s production rate from 3-4 fabrics to 6-7 fabrics per month. 

• Significantly reduce his machine production time from 8-10 days to 4-5 days 

• Further reduced manpower involvement to 50%

• Made it safer for operators