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Sualkuchi (Assam): In
Assam's Sualkuchi village, the rhythmic click-clock of the loom
reverberates everywhere. Every house has a loom and in it the xipini, or weaver, weaves exotic mekhla chadors, the traditional
Assamese attire, with an adept hand. Of late, there has however
been a decline in the number of weavers, as weaving is no more
seen as a paying proposition, changing the warp and weft of 'the
silk village'.
Weaving is an art and in Sualkuchi this is ingrained in a child's
curriculum and given as much importance, if not more, as going to
school.
Forty-year-old Gautam Chandra Das of the village says that he and
his siblings were made to sit and weave after school every day by
his parents. "There was no other option. We were a family, a
village of weavers; so each of us had to learn how to weave. It
was a life skill and so, every day after school we sat and
learnt," Das reminisced to a visiting IANS correspondent.
Things have however changed.
"These days weaving is not given as much importance. Weaving does
not pay well; so parents concentrate more on children's education
so that they get a good job, maybe in the city, later. In the
bargain, weaving has suffered," he says.
Situated on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra, Sualkuchi is
about 35 km from Guwahati. Das, who owns 10 looms and supplies
mekhla chadors to shops in Guwahati, said that the total number of
weavers in the village has come down from 25,000 to below 10,000.
Shops across the state, and some beyond, get their products from
Sualkuchi.
Simanta Baruah, a mekhla chador shop owner in the village said,
"Skilled labour is on the decline. My generation didn't think
about anything else; weaving was the family tradition, but it's
different with my children. They want more lucrative options...
can I blame them?"
Krishna Boro, a 19-year-old, is a weaver. Her mother and sister
weave too.
"My sister and I were taught weaving since we were kids. We have
grown up seeing our grandmother, mother, aunts and cousins weave.
It was the most normal thing for us to do," Boro said, when asked
how she got into the trade.
Boro earns about Rs.4,000 a month and says that they manage to
just about run the house with all their earnings put together.
"I did not complete my education, but some of my friends who did
now work under government schemes like the NRHM (National Rural
Health Mission). They are in better jobs... here, we get wages on
a weekly basis, and if someone has woven a more complicated
design, she gets paid better," Boro said with regret.
Her mother, however, has no such regret: "Weaving is like
breathing to me. The warp and weft come naturally and there is no
greater thrill than seeing a design come alive. I cannot imagine
doing anything else".
Not only does the difference in opinion between the two
generations highlight the threat to the hand weaving industry of
Assam but so do power looms.
Old-time weavers and shopkeepers say that with less effort, power
looms produce cheaper imitations of traditional mekhla chadors and
saris, further discouraging weavers.
"A weaver takes three-four days to weave one mekhla chador, while
power looms take much lesser time. They can also imitate designs
and produce in bulk," Das told IANS. He added that power loom
would not work for him because its cloth tears easily.
At times Chinese silk is used instead of the indigenous silk --
Assam is known for its muga, eri and pat silk -- which also brings
down the price of the cloth, sometimes by as much as three times.
A ray of hope in this scenario may be innovations like the Chaneki,
a device introduced by the Central Silk Board as part of its loom
upgradation programme, to maximise the skill of weavers and
increase productivity of the loom.
(Azera Parveen Rahman can be reached at azera.rahman@gmail.com)
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