"Babu Moshai Jindagi Badi Honi Chahiye Lambi Nahin" , this famous dialogue from movie anand connects so strongly with the fact that handloom textiles are at their best when unique designs (badi jindagi) are woven in shorter warp lengths (lambi nahin).
Continuing from my last post , where we examined in great detail that handloom textiles from India had a glorious past; now we will try to analyze what can be done to make sure that handloom weavers start earning respectful and remunerative income.
We have understood clearly that it is cost intensive for powerlooms and mills to weave new designs in shorter runs. Normally, mills and power-looms look for orders in same design for atleast 500 meters or more
Therefore it is clear that 1-500 meters is the clear playground for Handloom textiles.
Last few days I had many rounds of discussion with young weavers from different weaving clusters in India. Some of them have understood this 'playing field of handlooms' and are doing sampling for buyers extensively.
They shared that normally buyers, particularly designers, approach them for developing new samples. The weavers earn a premium on these 'sampling orders' not because of sympathetic reasons but because it is cost-ineffective for these buyers to get their sampling done on powerlooom and mills.
This evokes a feeling of good. Weaver's are experimenting more and re-skilling themselves in this process.
Contrary to their hopes and desires, Weavers reckoned that they are facing a new challenge while traversing this journey of weaving unique products in shorter runs.
Majority of these buyers who get their sampling done on handlooms (for cost-effectiveness reasons), place bulk orders on these samples to powerloom and mills (again for cost-effectiveness reasons).
This is causing a double whammy to weavers.
Paromita Banerjee also highlights this in her Mint article
"I often see a rash of fashion entrepreneurs who call themselves designers arrive at weaver clusters, assign a few months’ worth of work, then disappear. It lets weavers down, it renders them cyclically grasping for livelihoods, and gives them false hope."
Where does this lead to? Will Handloom weavers earn better income only in sampling? Will they not receive larger orders on the samples which they or their fellows weavers weave? If they dont receive bulk orders on their samples, how will the sector survive; the sector which provides employment to more than 3 times the number of employees which Indian Railway has (largest organized sector employer of India)?
Vertiginous distance to be traveled ! More questions than answers ! We need to delve more deeply.
What we know clearly is that shorter runs (less than 500 meters) is handlooms core strength playground. We now need to find and rejuvenate (if required) ground conditions of this 500 meters playground to win the right match.
Without being mawkish, As Circuit in movie "Munnabhai" says "Bhai tension nahin lene ka"
We will find the answers and I again I am saying it more fervently that Handloom weavers are
not in a state of problem, they are in a state of possibility.
