IJSSER

Title: LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY AND COPING MECHANISM AMONG THE SILK WEAVERS OF SUALKUCHI, ASSAM
Authors: Nazneen Akhtar
\|\| \|\|
Nazneen Akhtar Research Scholar (Ph.D.), North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya
MLA 8 Akhtar, Nazneen. "LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY AND COPING MECHANISM AMONG THE SILK WEAVERS OF SUALKUCHI, ASSAM." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 4, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 2959-2972, ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=220. Accessed Apr. 2019. APA Akhtar, N. (2019, April). LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY AND COPING MECHANISM AMONG THE SILK WEAVERS OF SUALKUCHI, ASSAM. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 4(4), 2959-2972. Retrieved from ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=220 Chicago Akhtar, Nazneen. "LIVELIHOOD VULNERABILITY AND COPING MECHANISM AMONG THE SILK WEAVERS OF SUALKUCHI, ASSAM." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 4, no. 4 (April 2019), 2959-2972. Accessed April, 2019. ijsser.org/more2019.php?id=220.
References [1]. Alemu, Z. G. (2012). Livelihood strategies in Rural South Africa: Implications for poverty reduction. International Association of Agricultural Economists, Triennial Conference. Brazil. [2]. Apparao, T, and P Venkata Rao. (2012). Livelihood insecurity and coping strategies of handloom weavers: A comparative study. Stud Tribes Tribals 12(1), 65-72. [3]. Carney,D. (1998). Sustainable Rural Livelihood: What contribution can we make?Department for International Development, London, UK. [4]. Chambers, R., & G. R.Conway. (1991). Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century. IDS Discussion paper 296. [5]. DFID. (1999) Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets. Department for International Development. www.livelihoods.org. [6]. Ellis, F. (2000). Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in developing countries. Oxford University Press. [7]. Hautala, K.R. (2013) A Sustainable Livelihood Analysis of small scale farmers in M'muock, Cameroon- Local realities and structural constraints. Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo. [8]. Kalita, S (2010). A Journey of Empowering a Community for Self-Reliance-Endogenous Tourism Project in Sualkuchi, Assam, India. Field Actions Science Report, North Eastern Regional Cell, Centre For Environment Education, Guwahati. [9]. Morris, Mike, John Buttersworth, Richard Lamboll, Evelyn Lazero, Faustin Maganga, and Neil Marsland. (2012) Undestanding household coping strategies in semi-arid Tanzania. Technical Report, Department for International Development, Tanzania. [10]. Neihof, A. (2004) The Significance of Diversification for Rural Livelihood Systems. Food Policy 29: 321-338. [11]. Pandey, P. (2003) Rs.405 lakhs pumped in to revive silk industry. The Hindu. http://www.thehindu.com. [12]. Xu, Dingde, Jifei Zhang, Golam Rasul, Liu Xie, Fangting Shaoquan, Mengtian Cao; Enlaiet Liu. (2015). Household Livelihood Strategies and Dependence on Agriculture in the Mountainous Settlements in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China." Sustainability 7, no. ISSN 2071-1050: 4850-4869.
Abstract: For the past few decades, weaver communities have experienced severe vulnerability to recurrent risks, shocks and trends in the face of changing environmental conditions, rising industrialisation and urbanisation, economic liberalisation and globalisation that have caused extreme livelihood deterioration and poverty. The silk industry of Sualkuchi, Assam is no exception to these and has undergone drastic transformation processes affecting the social and economic structures of the weaving communities. The purpose of the study is to investigate the outcome of such macrolevel processes on the micro-level unit of weaver households by taking Sualkuchi as an example and to identify the coping strategies adopted by the weavers in the events of crises. Substantiated with data from both desk approaches like research articles, books, journals, govt. reports, census reports etc. and field study using focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey, the findings indicate that decreasing wages, increasing yarn price, erosion in supply base of weavers, stiff market competition from new technologies in the form of powerlooms and artificial silk fabrics are the major sources of vulnerability in the study area. Depending on the economic status of the households, the major coping strategies adopted by the weavers included migration, occupational change, distress sale of assets, borrowing (in cash or kind), reduced consumption and discontinuing education of children.

IJSSER is Member of