Two NIFT teachers to spin khadi tales in China

Two professors of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Gandhinagar are set to present khadi as a sustainable fabric at the 89th Textile Institute World Conference to be held in Wuhan in China next month.

The conference is supposed to be an international platform for industrialists, academics and researchers in textiles, clothing and footwear sectors. NIFT faculty Bhaskar Banerjee and Bharat Jain hope to popularise khadi as a sustainable fashion garment for the youth in the international circuit.

Several national brands like Gujarat-based Arvind Mills have manufactured khadi denim trousers to make it youth friendly. They said the conference in China will have representation of top companies of the textile industry and here the NIFT professors will hard sell khadi as the next fashion statement at the global level. They also hope that through this effort they would find a better living for khadi artisans.

The NIFT faculty said they have also carried out a study that revealed that khadi artisans would surely get a good deal if the fabric is popularised in the international arena. However, there is another twist to the khadi tale.

The Gandhian charkha, which spins the khadi yarn, is on the wane. The production of charkha has virtually stopped for the last three to four years. It was in 1993 that Gujarat Khadigram Udyog started producing the charkha but for the last three years they are not getting any orders.

The last requisition that they got very recently was for 100 charkhas. A showpiece charkha costs `125 a piece, while a working one costs between '700 and '7,200, according to requirement.

Several educational institutions used to teach charkha spinning but now only Gujarat Vidyapeeth, set up by Mahatma Gandhi, runs charkha classes for its students.