Khadi charkha goes solar

KVIC, others develop new spinning wheel to increase output

The spinning wheel for making khadi is receiving a makeover. It can now run on solar power.

Charkhas spun by hand have a limit on production. The Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) and other khadi-promoting institutions have developed wheels with more spindles that can run on solar power.

Gujarat is likely to be the first state to successfully test the solar-powered wheels. The Khadi Prayog Samiti, Ahmedabad, Udhyog Bharti Trust, Gondal, Surat Engineering Vikas Association and Indo-German Tool Room are conducting the tests.

According to the KVIC, results from trial runs will be presented to the government next month. The KVIC and Gangdhigram Urja Vikas Sanstha, an Amravati-based NGO, designed the spinning wheel in collaboration with the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Industrialisation, Wardha.

"The objective is to increase wages of spinners, since most khadi workers are women. The government wants to provide better returns to them, which is not possible with charkhas spun by hand," said Arun Kumar Jha, chief executive officer, KVIC.

Khadi institutions provide employment to about 1 million artisans but their earning are meagre. A spinner earns Rs 250 a day for eight hours of work on a hand-spun wheel. Test results suggest solar-powered wheels can spin four times more.

Conventional wheels hold 3-8 spindles of khadi, which produces 25 hanks of yarn in eight hours. Solar-powered spinning wheels can hold 36 spindles to produce 100 hanks in the same time.

The Udhyog Bharti Trust is starting a trial run with 15 spinning wheels of 10-24 spindles that cost Rs 35,000-40,000 each. "We have a production facility at Gondal to test the results. We will study the wheels for a year and make changes in the design," said Chandrakant Patel, secretary of the Udhyog Bharti Trust.

The trust is the largest producer of hand-spun charkhas in India at 600 a month. Gujarat produces 25,000 charkhas in a year though the nationwide demand is for 15,000 of them.

A solar-powered spinning wheel costs Rs 30,000-100,000 depending on the number of spindles and a hand-pun wheel costs Rs 13,500. "Developers of solar-powered charkhas are working at reducing the cost," said Sanjay Hedaoo, Gujarat state director, KVIC.

Khadi is defined as handspun or handwoven cloth. The KVIC has written to the micro, small and medium enterprises ministry to allow cloth made on solar-powered spinning wheels to be called khadi. It has also sought permission to sell the cloth as green khadi.