'Time for weavers to move beyond banarsi saris'

The poor weavers of world-famous banarsi saris are likely to get a new lease of life. The weavers, covered under the Varanasi Handloom Cluster under the Integrated Handloom Cluster Development Programme (IHCDP) of the Textile Committee, are being provided with necessary interventions and training to enhance productivity.

The Varanasi cluster is one of the 20 handloom clusters, which have been identified by the Ministry of Textiles in 2005-06 for interventions and support.

With an outlay of Rs 40 crore for all the clusters, the scheme will cover the needs of the handloom sector in each cluster — from the supply of raw materials, marketing, design inputs, technology upgradation to welfare of the weavers.

“Diversification of the product portfolio is the need of the hour. The time has come to move beyond banarsi sari and experiment with other utility items,” said Pramod Srivastava, a project coordinator and teacher at Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Varanasi.

“At present, we are covering 5,000 weavers in Kotwa, Ramnagar and Lohta. With our sustained efforts, we bagged orders from companies like Fab India and others. This has resulted in higher income for the weavers,” he added.

There are about one lakh handloom weavers in and around Varanasi. The main product of Varanasi Handloom Cluster is sari and its popularity continues unabated. The single product accounts for 90-95 per cent of the revenues earned by the weavers.

“The demand for traditional heavy-embroidered saris is on a decline. The weavers need to experiment with their designs, products and costs in order to catch the buyers’ attention,” he said. “The products in the overseas market are positioned in purpose terms such as home furnishing products, fashionable dress material. But these items are produced in very low quantity,” he said.

Under the project, buyer-seller meets and exhibitions are being organise. “We have been able to bag orders worth up to Rs 4 lakh through such exhibitions,” he said.

“The handloom sector need not only continuation of financial subsidies but also institutional support for modernisation of production process, a steady supply of raw materials, training in design and patterns of weaving,” Srivastava added.