KANNAPURAM (KANNUR): The crisscrossing sunrays infiltrating through the glass tiles of the high gable roof weave a beautiful pattern inside the ramshackle workshed.
Around 12 workers -- elderly men and young women -- in the large unplastered hall are busy making plain white clothes for school uniforms. The rhythmic sound of the weaving swords beating the weft almost drowned out K P Kunhiraman -- the most senior weaver of Kannapuram Weavers Cooperative Society. He was singing a paean to the government.
'Where is the freedom won through stellar sacrifice?
After seven decades, where is the solace for the toiling class?
The government of the workers revived the neglected handloom
Hail the government, Hail the government, Hail the government'.
"Did you get what I recited or the words were lost in the noise," Kunhiraman asked.
Kannapuram -- in the Kalliasseri assembly segment -- is an overwhelmingly communist village with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) representing all the 14 wards of the panchayat.
Kannapuram's two weavers' societies -- controlled by the CPM -- employ around 100 persons. The LDF government's decision to give school uniform orders to weavers' societies has kept afloat several societies but few people join the workforce because of meagre wages.
The last time a person joined the Kannapuram Weavers' Society was two years ago. "We are in a position to hire and train any number of persons but no one responded to our job advertisement," says Anitha T V, a weaver at the society for the past 25 years.
The reason is not hard to guess. A trainee is paid only Rs 5,000 per month, and once the training is completed, she will be making only around 14,000 per month. "Unlike early days, few men want to work as handloom weavers," she says.
Going to pot
Just 1 km from the weavers' society is Mottammal, a heritage village of potters. Despite being a heritage village, there are only 20 houses making earthenwares, says Balan M, a potter, and secretary of CPM's branch committee.
He is upset that the government did not do much for the potters of Mottammal. "I am happy with the Rs 20,000 I earn every month but I am not able to face other potters because the Oommen Chandy government gave (a one-time aid of) Rs 25,000 to all potters and my government did nothing," he says.
The LDF government earmarked Rs 1 crore for the Mottammal heritage village but did not release the money citing the floods, Balan says. "The government should not have done that to us. We had a tough time during the COVID," he says.
The feeders and nesting pots he made during the lockdown are piled up in his shop.
'Tourism is the way forward'
Kannapuram is a small place with just around 18,500 people and the population has not seen an increase in the past two decades, said CPM leader and former panchayat president Ramakrishna Kannarath. It is known for murukku and chips, handloom, and pottery but the reality is the panchayat is a remittance economy, he says. "Every house in Kannapuram has at least one person working abroad," says Kannarath.
It is so small that it shares the main marketplace -- Cherukunnu Thara -- with the neighbouring panchayat of Cherukkunnu.
Cherukunnu Sree Annapoorneswary Temple -- the famous Parvathi-Krishna temple -- sits astride the two panchayats.
Kannapuram police station is at Cherukunnu but Cherukunnu Government High School is at Kannapuram. Kannapuram village office is at Cherukunnu but Cherukunnu post office is at Kannapuram.
Shyju Machathi (40), a police officer and farmer who identified 203 indigenous varieties of mangoes in Kannapuram, said tourism is the way forward for the village.
Kannapuram -- declared a Mango Heritage Village last year -- has a high density of mango trees. In 20 houses there are 382 mango trees. Of them, 102 are different indigenous varieties, says Machathi, who has made propagating and conserving indigenous mango varieties his mission. "Here, anyone can pluck and eat anybody's mangoes," he says.
He says the panchayat can come up with tourism projects linking the mangoes, the theyyams, and biodiversity of the village. "In this small panchayat, there are around 60 sacred groves," says Kannarath.
Machathi, a member of minister K K Shailaja's personal security, is planning a heritage walk linking the tree. "The Ayyoth pond alone attracts more than 130 varieties of birds, many of them are migratory birds. Like the mangoes, no one in Kannapuram or outside knows about this wealth," he says.