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Weavers, designers, academics have committed to document the innovations in the handloom sector in India. Legal experts will help construct new protection mechanisms to save creativity.
The NALSAR Law University, Hyderabad, has offered to form a special group, work with weavers and write a new law that will highlight their concerns to strengthen the struggling handloom industry, according to Professor Amita Dhanda.
About 300 weavers from India shared the platform with academia at a Global Meet on “Rethinking Indian Industrialisation of Crafts” at Chirala in Andhra Pradesh, according to Ravi Kumar Reddy of REEDS, a Hyderabad-based NGO that organised the event.
A khadi products exhibition was organised by the Registry of Sarees (TRS), which showcased Khadi products of the last 200 years. TRS organises seminars and experiential textile trails to facilitate knowledge-sharing among sari lovers.
The event between November 13-19 also features “A discussion on “Knowledge in Handloom Weaving in India” with eminent speakers and experts from Oxford University, NALSAR, Columbia University, IIT Delhi, Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
Weavers from Thailand, Taiwan, China and Lavos shared their weaving technologies and how their industry was doing. Weavers from Kutch explained about their specialised embroidery skills while those from Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim shared their weaving techniques. Couple of Weavers from Jammu Kashmir gave insights into Carpet Weaving.
The handlooms provide livelihoods for 4.3 million families, making it the second largest employer after agriculture. The industry has the potential to create over one million jobs with the lowest per capita investment for creation of such jobs, through building on existing skills and social capital.
Fighting powerloom
However, due to certain perceptions regarding handloom cloth, and the necessity of competing with powerloom imitations, growth in the sector is severely hampered, experts pointed out at the discussions.
For example, power loom designers can easily copy popular handloom designs and produce them for a cheaper price, as designs are not protected by copyright, eating into the demand for handloom cloth, they pointed out.
To improve the situation of handloom weavers, it is crucial to improve market and production infrastructure, capacitate weavers and designers to innovate deep craft skills, and provide access to credit and financial support. Designs have to be protected under the intellectual property regime.
The system of production can be re-engineered such that the creativity of the weaver can co-exist with the demands of production to the designers taste.
Handloom currently services many growing market niches; luxury, ethnic, semi-urban markets for sarees as well as green markets for sustainable goods.
The meet has been organised against this backdrop in collaboration with Mohan Rao of National Federation of Handlooms and Handicrafts, Prof Bijker of Maastricht University and Ineke Sluiter of Universiteit Leiden
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