Economics of Jamdani Handloom Product of Purulia in Nadia District of West Bengal

Abstract

Jamdani sharee manufacturing has a long tradition of repute and excellence as a handicraft. Being a labour intensive handloom product it is produced with small amount of capital with substantial value addition. The present study seeks to examine the economics of Jamdani handloom product and labour process of production of jamdini cotton handloom product. Both gross profitability and net profitability in this industry are substantial for the independent units while gross income generated for the artisans working under different production organization is significant for livelihood. Variation in profitability across independent units and tied units is significantly explained by both labour productivity and capital productivity while that in units under cooperatives by capital productivity alone. For the industrial units taken together (60 units) across the three production organizations the profitability variation is explained by labour productivity, capital productivity and type of production organization. Production organization emerges as more significant than either labour productivity and capital productivity to explain the variation in profitability across the industrial units working under different production organizations.