MANGALURU: Kinnigoli town, about 35km from Mangaluru, used to echo with the sound of handlooms a few decades ago. With more than 500 weavers, the small town had a flourishing business as Udupi Saris produced here used to find their place of pride in wardrobes not just in the coastal region but even in far off places like Mumbai and Dubai.
Cut to 2019, there is a deafening silence in the bylanes of the weavers town as only 15 handlooms continue to make sound while others have fallen silent. What’s more worrying is that 14 out the 15 weavers who have stayed put with the traditional occupation are above 60 years old and there is no one interested enough who they can pass on this craft to. It’s the same case with a few other places in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts where the sari is manufactured.
Serious efforts are being made by the weavers co-operative societies and Karkala-based Kadike Trust to pull the industry from the brink. Weavers who have left the occupation are being wooed back with the promise of higher wages, training for women (homemakers) in weaving and new-age marketing techniques to increase the demand for the sari.
Also the traditional sari is being given a modern touch to woo the style-conscious women and to somehow sustain the industry. Udupi Sari is preferred for its feel of softness among other qualities like its coolness and light weight. But for its weavers, it has not been the same case. “What is there in it,” says Shankara Shettigar, a 76-year-old who quit weaving a few months ago because of his ill-health, when asked why his four sons did not continue the family occupation. Two of his four sons are engineers and all are leading a better life. “I didn’t allow them to touch the loom. If I had, they would be struggling to make ends meet,” he says.
Thirty years ago, Shankara had 30 looms at his big house commonly called ‘Maggada Mane’ (Handloom house) and served as a link between another 30 weavers and the society. A few days ago, the last handloom in his house made an exit as he thinks that it is of no use any more. It is the comparatively low wages and high skill which makes these weavers dump their traditional occupation and embrace the easy and remunerative job as construction worker and others.
“If the whole family works on a loom for an entire day, they will earn a maximum of Rs 500. Whereas each person can earn more than Rs 600 as a construction worker or a painter,” points out Madhava Shettigar, Managing Director, Talipadi Primary Weavers Service Co-operative Society, established in 1952. The society’s turnover from the famous Udupi Saris and other products like bath towel, pani panche (vesti) and lungi has come down from more than Rs 50 lakh per annum to just Rs 10 lakh now.
The society today is mostly dependent on its hall, rented out for various functions, and shops.
Handloom weavers across the country are not happy but the situation appears more grim in Udupi. “Compared to North Karnataka which produces the other GI tag saris like Molakalmuru, Guledgudda and Ilkal, the Udupi Sari is badly hit because of the issue of wages. “Compared to those places, we are forced to pay a little more than earlier because of acute scarcity of labour force,” says Madhava Shettigar, adding that it is very difficult for them to bring back the weavers who have shifted to other jobs.
Given the intense competition the Udupi Sari is facing from other saris in the market, it is difficult for the society to survive if the price is increased to compensate for the hike in weavers’ wages to match that of other jobs in the labour industry. However, the society is flexible in order to retain the skilled manpower. Recently, it had to offer a wage of Rs 500 a day to bring back Sanjeeva Shettigar to run the loom which he had quit years ago to work in a restaurant. He is one of the few weavers who can weave an 80 count sari. A decade ago, there were weavers who used to produce 100 and 120 count saris. Now, it is mostly 60 and 80 count saris. The sari gets more softer and lighter as the count goes up. A Udupi sari weighs less about 350 to 450 grams compared to saris from other places.
As the weavers grow old, the output and income also goes down. Mohini Shettigar, 75, who used to weave three saris in two days when she was hale and hearty, now takes at least two days to weave just one. Weaving has taken a toll on her left eye and she finds it difficult to manage the skilful job with just one eye. “It’s becoming very difficult with every passing day. But I have no other go,” says the woman who earns Rs 200 a day.
For the past four months, her daughter Yashodha who was earlier into rolling beedis and doing other odd jobs, has joined her. She has been tasked the job of weaving bath towels and shawls to begin with before she graduates to sari. Yashodha, 55, is happy with the change in job.“I feel healthy now and have shed a lot of extra weight. My joint pain has disappeared.”
Mamata Rai of Karkala-based Kadike Trust and her husband V Chikkappa Shetty are in the forefront of reviving the Udupi Sari. A study they conducted two years ago indicated that Udupi Sari is on the brink of extinction and requires urgent measures for its revival. They found fewer than 50 weavers in Udupi and DK and most of them aged above 60.
With the help of some weaver societies, the Trust started ‘Save Udupi Sari’ campaign through which efforts were made to overcome the inferiority complex among weavers about their occupation, create awareness about the eco-friendly sari, branding and marketing etc. As a result of these initiatives, Mamata Rai says the wages went up and many returned to the occupation in the last one year.
To encourage weavers, the Trust has started giving out ‘Best Weaver’ awards once in three months. Started nine months ago, it consists of a cash prize. Also, saris produced in Haleyangadi and Kinnigoli societies come with a picture and name of the weaver. Rai says the demand for Udupi Sari has gone up now and there are requests for orders from Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Bengaluru and other places.
