|
|
|
|
|
|
Weaving Dreams, Crafting Success
|
|
|
The
handloom in India is a neglected national treasure
|
In
India, there are hundreds of women who weave cloth by hand. They work from their
cottages, often in very remote, rural areas. Their looms are at home so that
they can attend to their household duties and nurture their children while, at
the same time, earn an income for their family. Men provide partnership in this
demanding livelihood, mainly by selling-and taking all the credit.
The
handloom in India is a neglected national treasure-like Indian women! Nowhere in
the world is there such a depth and diversity of handloom weaving skills as
there is in this vast country; each region and sub-region has its own unique
weaving tradition, marked by different types of designs, processes, dyes, and
fabric. Craft traditions are oral history, learnt over the generations from
father to son, and, more importantly, from mother to daughter. They are
disappearing without so much as archiving for posterity or documentation for
revival. Women Weave is a Mumbai-based organization that is trying to bring
these “shadow weavers” into the spotlight.
From
Darkness to Light
One
woman who has been instrumental in changing perceptions about the Indian
handloom sector is Sally Holkar. She first began her life’s vocation by
saving, from virtual extinction the Maheshwar weaving tradition of the central
Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where the man she married and is now divorced
from, hailed.
|
|
|
The
repository of these immense arts lies with master craftspeople
|
Twenty
seven years back, when this American national first made India her home, she
started the Rehwa Society as a collective that helped the weavers of Maheshwar
find markets for their geometric-patterned silk and cotton hand-woven fabrics.
Holkar’s efforts eventually evolved into Women Weave, a not-for-profit
organization that networks with other NGOs to combine skills and techniques in a
singular quest: to revive and sustain India’s dying craft traditions, with a
particular focus on women weavers.
India’s
amazing handloom weaving traditions are dispersed in inaccessible villages. The
repository of these immense and evolved arts lies with master craftspeople who
are uneducated in the modern sense, which simply means unable to make sense of
urban markets. Facing intense competition from cheap, machine-made textiles,
instead of stockpiling products they are unable to sell, they are choosing to
leave their ancestral occupation in search of steadier sources of income. Can
these weavers be motivated to remain within the trade? Very often, the answer to
this question is no.
Says
Holkar, “I have interviewed and spoken to any number of people over the years,
and the answer is always the same. Why do people weave handloom? Because they
have no other alternative, not because it is a sustainable trade. It will only
become a sustainable trade if you are able to earn an income plus a profit.”
That’s why Women Weave focuses its efforts on cutting out as many people as
they can between the maker and the market, between the producer and the end
user.
Tangled
Warp and Weft
|
|
|
The
export market for handlooms is very challenging
|
There
are many issues and concerns related to handlooms in India. The urbanized Indian
consumer, like his counterpart elsewhere in the world, is sometimes willing to
spend on expensive designer labels or imported goods but not on similarly priced
handmade textiles and crafts. Organizations like Women Weave point to the fact
that only about 25 percent of the world is over 50 years old. In other words,
the market is very young, and this market is not interested in the typically
woven saris or dupattas (stoles) or even fabrics for salwar
kameezes (women’s ensemble of a long top worn with loose trousers). The
young customer prefers garments. “We are making a very concerted effort to
educate the designers of large retail stores about the potential of handlooms.
They have no idea. For them handloom is something their grandmother wore, gets
crumpled quickly, has kuccha color (not color-fast), and is out of
fashion,” says Holkar.
Also,
handlooms are typically associated with large discount sales in the metros
before Diwali, the widely celebrated annual festival of lights in
October-November. Holkar says, “This is because the interface between handloom
weavers and the rest of the world has been either a very bottom-line bania
(small trader) who is interested in his profits, or a government officer who,
poor fellow or poor woman, was assigned to that area, had absolutely no
knowledge or interest in the subject, and was only hoping to be transferred to a
better place as quickly as possible.” She explains, “So their input cannot
be of the same quality as ours, or of caring partnerships with similar efforts,
because we are interested in the welfare of the women and, in the end, of the
customer too.”
Freedom
Fabric
|
|
|
Margins
also have to be improved
|
Woman
Weave has had long sessions with young (under 30) designers for large stores in
cities like Mumbai. The response has been good. Young designers are fascinated
by how the handloom sari (the draped national dress of Indian women) can
be turned into a T-shirt or a trouser, with a jacket, perhaps. Holkar says,
“So there has to be education on both the sides; you have to educate the
weaver to be more flexible, which is not an easy task, and you have to educate
the designers on what the potential of handlooms is.” It is not always
necessary to weave a 5.5 meter sari, we can weave a 1.5 meter kurti
which are trendy ethnic short tops that can be teamed with Western wear such as
jeans. In Holkar’s words, “That’s what the market wants. It’s a huge
challenge and we are trying.”
Women
Weave has hired a public relations firm to help them in their efforts to reach
the end consumer and, on the other side of the curtain, the weaver. Holkar
explains, “We want to let them know we exist and how we can help them. It’s
a huge job for which we require funds we don’t have. If we did, we would
divide this country into regions of possible partnerships.” The organization
is helping not just at the market level, but by providing a support system in
micro finance, child care, vision, health, and innovation and weaving
techniques.
Weaving
Through Trouble
Holkar
states, "With the exception of a very few old people, perhaps in the south,
craft skills have declined dangerously. Today, I can tell you that in Maheshwar,
where I have been working for the last 25 years, no young weaver can sit down
and weave what I would call a beautiful sari. They don’t have a clue.
They have never seen it. They have all been studying and their grandmothers are
dead. How can they save the cloth?”
Holkar
wants the government to identify, purchase, and exhibit handlooms via the famous
Crafts Museum in Delhi and the equally distinguished Calico Museum in Ahmedabad.
One idea that is workable is to create a databank and make craft processes
available on CDs and online. As Holkar puts it, “Every town and village in
this country, if they don’t already have a computer, will have one soon. In
order to make something, you have to see it first-wholly. One little chinda
(border motif) is not enough. You have to see how the pallas (intricate
panel worn on visible end) and the buttis (designs evenly spaced over the
body of the fabric) came.” It is possible to photograph the whole thing on
digital cameras, with colors as true as possible, and make CDs available to
anyone who wants them.” Holkar continues, “This can be done online, for
example, a Web site on Maheshwar saris, lets us all see them, buyers,
designers, and weavers.” Women Weave would like to see sustained government
support in this area as well.
Margins
also have to be improved. Exporting to the haute couture clientele abroad is
easier said than done. The top of the market is a very fashion oriented,
volatile market. The lead time required to sell a fashion item with the required
mark-up is very often unviable. If India is x, then the pricing has to be at 6x
in a Western market. This means that a very unique item has to be made available
at the right time and at the right place. The lead time required for that can be
managed only by some very established handloom weavers, of which there are few.
The export market for handlooms is very challenging to say the least.
Nevertheless,
Holkar sums up, “I see tremendous potential, a skill bank of men and women who
are not begging and who are willing to work but who are merely misrepresented. I
have seen what tremendous results can be produced with a little help from the
outside. We recently had an exhibition of Women Weave products in Mumbai, and in
four hours we sold 4.5 lakhs (Rs.450, 000) worth of products on the first day
and secured orders for a like amount on the second day. This is more money than
some of our women have ever seen, and it wasn’t so difficult.”
*
Lalitha
Sridhar is a
Chennai-based freelance journalist keenly interested in development issues. Your
emails will be forwarded to her by contacting the editor at:
bridge@islamonline.net
|
|
|
|
|
|
