Assessment of Level of Poverty of Handloom Households in Erode District of Tamil Nadu

The Indian handloom industry demonstrates the richness and diversity of Indian culture, but the incidence of poverty in Handloom households is prominent. The per capita income limit to fix the poverty line was considered as Rs. 12984 per person in the present study. Accordingly level of the poverty and incidence of the poverty were calculated by using chi square test, Head count ratio and Income gap ratio method. It is evident from the study that more than 50 per cent of the handloom households were falling into the state of poverty and socio economic factors such as composition of household, size of household, average wage rate and indebtedness of the household are found influencing the level of poverty. And garment activity is found to be supplementing the household income strongly.