Traditional Weavers Still Struggle In AP 

By

AS Joel Kumar

Deputy Bureau Chief, Sakshi TV

Hyderabad: Indian traditional weavers are always rated high with regard to their skill of weaving clothes. The clothes of these native weavers became famous long long ago. For several years lakhs of weavers in the country eek out their livelihood by weaving clothes. But in the recent past due to the onset of textile factories, the traditional weavers livelihood was hit badly. Weavers are struggling to make their ends meet by weaving clothes in the traditional way.

One such weavers community is in paturu village of Kovuru mandal in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.

Paturu weavers work caught the attention of many people in the country. They weave sarees by mixing cotton and pattu. These sarees have become a choice for all sections of the society. The price range is between Rs 1500 and Rs 5000.

To really witness these sarees one has to travel to Puturu village which is 12 km from Nellore town. Anybody who enters Paturu village they first notice about 25 shops selling paturu sarees. A brief walk into the lanes and bylanes of the village will bring to light the weavers at work.

There was a time when there used to be more than 200 traditional weaving machines. All the machines were at work. Weavers in the village had enough work. But in the recent past things have changed. Now there are hardly 100 weaving machines.

Moreover, all these machines were operated by elderly people.

In Paturu villge, weavers have to depend on master weavers for work. The master weaver procure crude yarn from mill owners. Later, the crude yarn is given to the weavers and they in turn apply different colour dyes to these yarn. Later, from the crude dyed yarn the threads are take out either by hand or by special machines. This work is mostly done by women.

"We work on this machine and take out thread from the crude yarn. The threads are taken out on rolls. Daily we earn Rs 300. We work very hard but end up getting very less money"says Padma while working on the machine that separate threads from crude yarn.

Once the crude yarn has become thread it wil be undergoing a process called Aasu. Here the threads will be put on to the Charaka so that fine yarn for sarees can be taken out. In this work also, many women work tirelessly.

Even women who lost their husbands do this piece of work and earn their livelihood. "After my husband died I had to go out and work. But I thought of doing the same work at home. So I invested money and got a charaka at my house and doing the process of Aasu. I cannot do other work involved in weaving.This is convenient for me", says Ramanamma who prepares fine yarn for sarees.

Once the fine yarn has been in place it would be subjected to process known as padugu. The threads in the yarn would be separted and would be cleaned with starch.

This process is done by specially skilled workers. From each yarn weavers weave five sarees and five blouses.

Most of the paduru workers are located in kovuru. Unless the yarn is subjected to padugu process, saree can be prepared by the weavers. But as the numbers of weavers has come over the years in Paturu, the padugu worker of neighbouring kovuru also dwindled in numbers in the recent past.

"Earlier, we had 20 padugu centres in kovuru. Each centre atleast ten people used to work. But now only four are there and numbers are still coming down" says Hanumanth Rao, third general padugu worker of kovuru.

The biggest tragedy of padugu workers is that they are considered as weavers. Neither government nor the local officials and more so the elected representatives are not identifying them as workers who belong to weaving community. They are trying to explain their situation but

none is coming to their rescue. "We are not given government loans on par with weavers. Whatever welfare schemes extended to weavers are not applicable for us .Whatever we are earning is very less. That is the reason many are leaving this work", says Prasad, while doing padugu work in kovuru.

Tragedy of Padugu workers is that they cannot do any other work. For several years they are involved in padugu work. They are not identified as main weaving community.

"If the same situationi continues situation continues for long we have no other option but to commit suicides," says Srinivasulu, padugu worker of Kovuru.

In Paturu village, elderly couple are involved in weaving of sarees. While the male member will be on the handloom, which is the main weaving machine, women help them in several other associated works like straightening of threads, separation of thread from yarn. "I am 60 years old .

Even at this age I have to work throughout the day my wife also will work along with me. But we are not getting enough wages for our work", says Venkateshwarlu while working on his handloom.

For sarees borders are to be weaved separately some times. This work is generally called zari work. This work order should also come from master weaver. "We are getting work throughout the year. But our daily labour has not changed since eight years. Prices of all essential commodities has gone up. But we continue to take very less labour" says Nagaraj who is busy doing Zari work.

To work on handlooms and to weave sarees one has to have clear eye sight. In Paturu village most of the weavers are senior citizens. They all have eye sight related issues. But they dont have any scheme for their eye operations or corrections. Earlier, they were covered under Arogyasri

scheme. But now they are denied the same service. "My left eye was operated under Arogyasri scheme during YS Rajasekhara Reddy government. Now I have problem in the right eye. I cannot afford the operation as it costing more money," says 70 year old Subba Rayudu while weaving a saree.

Weaving community in Paturu are a vexed lot. They do not want to transfer the tradition of weaving sarees on handlooms to their children. They are putting all out efforts to educate their children. "We are only have a tough life as weavers. The kind of wages we are getting is very low.

Governments are not helping weavers in the right perspective. In this scenario we want our children to get pursue their education and go ahead in life in other aspects", says Usha while straightening the threads.

In Paturu village, there are 25 shops that sell local sarees. People from neightbouring districts and states come to buy sarees. There is demand for paturu sarees but local weavers are not getting proper labour. "This is mainly because of the high material cost. We are procuring material and giving work for the weavers. Unless the government brings down the prices of material weavers cannot be benefitted" says Venkateshwarlu, paturu saree shop owner.

There are some regular customers who come to paturu to shop for sarees. "These sarees are very good and affordable for all sections of the society. But it is sad to know that weavers who make such beautiful sarees are not getting their due share. It is time government take steps to help weavers", says Mythri, regular visitor to paturu saree shops.

Now we are hearing "Make in India" slogans in the country. The Central government claims that they are giving support for local manufacturers of goods. On the other hand the state government boosts of helping weavers. But in reality weavers continue to struggle to make their ends meet.