At the outset, I would like to say that the government and the members of the cabinet the honourable finance minister, myself and the prime minister have spent several sleepless nights on this problem almost from the time when we took over in 1992. It was he who suggested that as a short cut to solving the problem of the handloom industry, the area of reservation might be increased and sarees and dhotis might be reserved for handlooms. He was impelled to do that because of the intense suffering of the handloom weavers in South India. The madras state, as it then was, retained the largest number of handloom weavers. There is no point in our saying today that millions of families are suffering or in our evaluating them in terms of numbers, for the reason that our statistics are all wrong. But there is no denying that the quantum of human being dependent on the handloom industry is a very appreciable number. It does not matter whether the total number of handlooms is 28 lakhs or 16 lakhs in 2002. So, we need not quarrel about the numbers affected. If there are sixteen lakhs of looms and there are eighty lakhs of people starving, there are a number of people who starve because of these unfortunate weavers not getting any work and all that follows is no income, no food, starvation and the misery multiplies. It is essentially a human problem; from the human angle. It is no question of there being any dispute in regard to what should be done for our unfortunate countrymen, who are dependent for their sustenance on a particular type of living on a particular type of economic activity which is basically is unstable. But, somehow or other, it is the responsibility of every citizen of this country and of the government, which the citizens have placed into power to see that misery is relieved. Sir, our people are suffering. Our agriculture sector is suffering and our social sector is suffering like anything. But the hon. Finance Minister is speaking about Vote on Account.
