The controversy over khadi fashion, is there a need for a rethink

With the recent Fabindia and KVIC legal tussle the limelight is back on khadi and the brand. In fact, the complaint of people cashing in on khadi is not new. It started way back in 1938. After years of discussion, the government formalised brand control of khadi in 2013, by issuing a notification that any textile sold as khadi had to have KVIC’s ‘Khadi Mark’ certification. The immediate provocation seems to have been reports of powerloom cloth being sold as khadi, but KVIC now seems in no hurry to grant this certification.

The buzz is Fabindia apparently has been trying for a while to get its products properly certified but KVIC has rejected its requests. So is this a case of a powerful corporation taking advantage of an Indian product?

Growing significance of khadi

Khadi for Mahatma Gandhi came to stand for many things, besides defeating British industry. It stood for villages becoming self-sufficient, even for manufactured goods, and hence resisting the lure of urbanisation. It meant income generation and development of skills for the poor. It meant the discipline of manual labour, a kind of purposeful meditation, even for those who didn’t need the money. It gave a vivid visual symbol for the national movement and perhaps even helped unite an incredibly diverse country in its wrap of plain white cloth.

In fact, a recent evaluation committee on KVIC had found many issues. Khadi enjoyed big rebates, for example highly subsidised cotton but the products are 60 per cent more expensive than mill cloth. The standard response to this is that this includes the cost of fair returns to manual spinners and weavers but the report pointed out that KVIC supported less than 3 lakh people and what is worse, wages are so low that spinners and weavers can hardly make both ends meet.

What’s more KVIC is more than just textiles. Its stores sells other village-made products like honey and cosmetics but the quality and service is so poor that it all just builds up to more unsold stocks. In recent years, Fabindia and many more retailers like them have also extended their brand to foods and cosmetics, all impeccably organic with traceable benefits to local producers. Indeed investment in Indian handicraft but produced to market-leading designs and standards, has made good economic sense for many companies — and for the small, often village-based producers who supply them.

Perhaps there is a need to relook the strategy around KVIC. Meanwhile, the government in a bid to make khadi spinning more remunerative, KVIC has revised the wages for spinners to Rs 7 per hank (coiled form of Khadi yarn) - about 75 per cent hike over Rs 4 paid before November 2016. The government needs to do more to begin with it needs to look at the numerous, unlisted spurious khadi outlets spread across the country. And there are other concerns. Especially as there are rumours that Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved brand currently in the fray to make Khadi jeans could be clouding with KVIC’s stance against Fabindia. It wasn’t so long back after all, when Baba Ramdev raised a hue and cry over Fabindia being a “foreign company”.