Former prime minister Indira Gandhi was seldom seen without a Sambalpuri handloom saree and Sonia Gandhi followed suit. Even the wedding saree of Aishwarya Rai was a handloom wonder.
Sambalpuri saree has been the taste of connoisseur. And while the saree has been drawing huge accolades with celebrity hype, not much attention has been paid to the talented weavers who struggle just to survive.
With little patronage forthcoming, many have deserted the family legacy and are reduced to rickshaw-pullers in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. Others are gradually distancing themselves from the art of weaving magic. The plight of the weavers in Attabira block of Bargarh says all.
Rising cost of inputs, lack of platform to sell their products at a decent price and absence of government support have added to their plight. Weavers in the villages of Singhpali, Tope, Banahar, Hirlipali, Lulupali, Jhilminda, Kadobahal, Kathdera, Rangiatikra continue to depend on this vocation to eke out a living. They weave saree and other materials and hand over to cooperatives who in turn provide them with yarn and dye.
It takes the entire family a week to weave a saree that fetches them about Rs 400-500. They earn Rs 3,000 maximum at the end of the month. More than lack of market it is the rising price of yarn which has left the weavers worried.
Yarn prices have doubled jacking up prices of items weaved by them. The high cost has been keeping buyers away and rendering them jobless.
Weavers admit that they have little choice between poverty and penury. ‘’At this stage of life, neither we can live the profession nor try our hands at something new’,” said weaver Radheshyam Meher. Even if they want to start something afresh, arranging money is a nightmare for them.
Another weaver Seshadev Meher said micro-finance companies operating in villages are ready to offer loan, but the high rate of interest is pushing them into a debt trap.
President of Sambalpuri Bastralya Handllom Co-operative Society Limited, Sambit Acharya said permission to export cotton from India has not only jacked up the price of yarn but has also resulted in short supply. Sambalpuri Bastrayala has been linked with about 15,000 weavers, but he admitted that the weavers are passing through a very bad times and demanded the subsidy on yarn besides 10 per cent subsidy on finished product each both from the State and the Centre.