The Hindu Business Line : New threads of recovery

Varanasi or Banaras, the city situated on the banks of the Ganga, mourns its vanishing handicrafts and the generations of craftsmen who have passed away in anonymity.

Thirty-year-old Anil Dashrath is one of the just 160 master weavers left in the region. While he has returned to his loom recently, a few months ago, Dashrath was running from pillar to post trying to make ends meet. “We were in dire straits, our children were hungry. We were not being paid enough. So many of our fellow weavers have died due to lack of food,” he says.

“We were getting a mere Rs 800 for every saree that we wove. We would get that after 10-15 days and at times it was not given at all!” Dashrath is the only earning member in a family of 14 and joined his ancestral profession in 1995 after his father’s vision started to deteriorate. He had to discontinue his studies after 12th standard to join a line of work that he himself does not know spans back to how many generations.

Change factor

A lens of the camera changed this. R. K. Krishna Kumar, Director of Tata Sons, saw a story on the dilapidated living conditions of the master weavers of Varanasi on a news channel and decided to do something.

“A team was sent to Varanasi at his behest and it discovered a lack of even basic amenities. So, water pumps were installed for clean drinking water, electricity was provided through solar systems, medical camps were conducted, eye check-ups held and spectacles were given to those in need. Given the frequent power cuts, solar lights were installed in the weavers’ houses to enable them to work for longer hours. Bank accounts were also opened for them,” says Abhijit Mukherjee, CEO of Taj Luxury Hotels. Infant and child nutrition programmes were started to take care of malnutrition.

Definite source

Wanting to provide the weavers with a definite source of livelihood, the Taj Group of hotels decided to let the weavers make sarees for the employees of its luxury hotels, says Mukherjee. “We felt these sarees would go very well with the aura of Taj and embellish the luxury touch points of our hotels.”

Taj Hotels contacted Chamundi Silks of Karnataka, a well-known silk export house, to provide the required yarn, dyed and coloured to specifications.

Currently, Taj is working with 25 master craftsmen in three villages close to Varanasi. To begin with, they have been given a contract to weave 600 sarees. However, within the next three months, the hospitality major plans to roll out new sarees for its staff across its 10 luxury properties. Helping the weavers to innovate, Mukherjee says they might look at experimenting with different designs as well.

“Life seems to be getting better for us. We get Rs 1,800 for every saree and it is given to us on the spot. Now we are able to save some money, as raw material is also being given to us by them (Taj). We just need to weave the sarees,” says a relaxed Dashrath.

Over 60 sarees have been delivered so far and worn by the front-desk employees of Taj Mahal Luxury Hotel and Palaces in Mumbai. This is just the beginning, and more female staff will soon be draped in the royal threads of Banaras, says Mukherjee.

While currently the weavers are working on the Taj order, they are not under any restriction to work only for them.

However, they are hoping that someone else would also soon take notice of their craftsmanship and offer them a similar opportunity.

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