When Bina and Kesava Rao opened their handloom design studio in Banjara Hills in 1998, they weren’t ruffled by the criticism or the fact that they were perhaps one of the few handloom studios in the city.
Now, 17 years later, their hard work is being rewarded as Prime Minister Narendra Modi might soon declare August 7 as the National Handloom Day. And Bina has been one of the handloom movement’s spearhead.
So, what will National Handloom day be all about? “On the PM’s request, the Indian handloom committee has put together a few events that are scheduled to take place on the big day.
Awards will be conferred and there is also a plan to chronicle stories of second-generation weavers, wherein the children of weavers have picked up the trade. My story will feature a village in Uppada, Andhra Pradesh. I have been actively involved with them for many years now.
“But more importantly, ‘India Handloom’ is a new quality certification mark — just like what gold has — which will be launched soon. This certificate will be the benchmark for Indian traditional handloom and will speak of quality,” adds Bina.
The couple’s studio, Creative Bee, currently has facilities to create textiles, including a natural dye unit and a self-run research and development department.
They also provide work to over 400 handloom weavers in several states of India. With the PM’s imminent announcement, the two can’t wait for the much-needed awareness the dying art of handloom needs.
“Years ago, when we only had a handful of clients, Shabana Azmi had walked in accompanied by a friend. She loves handloom saris and was impressed that rather than running after big designers, we were focused on representing the undervalued weavers and the artisans. It was through people like Shabana and other senior designers who loved handloom that our work started to pick up pace,” she says.
Dying art: Weavers at work
Bina is an adviser on numerous state-central projects and government committees, ministry of textiles and is also a member of the World Crafts Council. She is also working towards healthy growth of handloom and handicraft sectors in India and South East Asia.
“As a headquarter level selection committee member for National Awards and Sant Kabir Awards (2013-14 and 2014-15), I was one of the three private experts and it was reassuring to see so many exquisite hand-woven products created in different parts of the country. But those skills are fast diminishing and the government need to act fast to conserve and promote.”
Like Yoga Day, Bina hopes that the Handloom Day will create widespread awareness about the handlooms. “We have a group in the city called Sari Pact... like them if we could have people wearing handlooms for seven days a month it would be such a boost,” says Bina.
