A Study on Cruelty Faced by Silkworms in the Production of Silk

Abstract

Silk is the fiber that silkworms weave to make their cocoons which are the outer casings that protect them during the pupal stage. But most of the insects used by the silk industry don’t live past this stage, because they are boiled or gassed alive inside their cocoons, which causes the cocoons to begin unraveling so that workers can obtain the silk threads. Some 6,600 silkworms are killed to make just 1 kilogram of silk. The CSB (Amendment) Act, Rules and Regulations have been notified by the Govt. of India to bring quality standards in silkworm seed production. The objective of the research is to create awareness on the cruelty faced by silkworms in the production of silk. The research method used is empirical research and simple random sampling method is used and the sample size is 200 responses and the sample frame is in and around Valluvar kottam. The independent variables are age, gender, education qualifications, occupation and locality. The alternative to this cruel practice is to use another method of obtaining silk called ahimsa silk or wild silk, it is a method of nonviolent silk breeding and harvesting. Wild silk moths are bred, rather than the domestic variety. Roughly 3,000 silkworms are killed to make a single pound of silk. That means that billions, if not trillions, of them are killed for this every year. In order to avoid this practice of killing silkworms we should use an alternative type of fabric or use wild silk