Reviving Khadi in India

In July 2002, a collection of ensembles in 'Tencel Khadi' (a blend of Tencel and Khadi in the ratio 30:70) was created by Bangalore-based designer, Deepika Govind, in association with the Karnataka Khadi Board. Tencel is a lyocell fiber natural in origin and hence, environment friendly. It offers the comfort and luxury of a natural fiber as well as the performance and practicality of a man-made fabric. Tencel Khadi showed lesser shrinkage (4-5%) as compared to the high shrinkage seen in Khadi garments (about 7 %). Due to Tencel's softness, it would become easier to work with Khadi and lend better drape quality to finished garments. Tencel Khadi would provide excellent scope for exports. In 2002, the Austria-based company, Lenzing AG, proposed to make Khadi more eco-friendly by blending the bio-degradable 'modal fibre' with Khadi...

Khadi has very little to offer in terms of fabric performance. It looks attractive when starched and kept in showrooms but, it does not remain the same after washing. Even finer counts and blends of Khadi cannot withstand many washes and thus, cannot be used for day-to-day purposes. It was becoming extremely difficult for Khadi to compete with the high-tech, colour-fast, wrinkle-free, mill-made cottons and blends available today. According to analysts, Khadi requires government sanction in every single activity and has therefore been stuck in a bureaucratic swamp, unable to increase its output or raise the quality of the fabric. In 2002, Khadi formed less than half per cent of India's textiles. In order to grow, the production of Khadi needs to be decentralized...