Thiruvananthapuram: There are ten weavers at the Parassala unit of Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, none a Malayali. R. Subramanian from Madurai, the oldest of them, says that there have never been any Malayali here, as silk weaving is usually the forte of Tamilians. But there was a time when Balaramapuram, famous for handloom, did have expert Malayali silk weavers, according to Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi joint secretary P. Manoharan.
“With the new generation reluctant to take it up, there are none anymore. Even in the case of the Tamil Nadu weavers, people like Subramanian could be the last of their kind,” he says. Mr Subramanian has been weaving since he was 12 years. Now 72, his hands hurt, and he is not able to weave more than two metres. The amount he earns for putting in so much work, which starts at 7 am and ends at 9 pm, is just Rs 250 a day. Will a new generation be ready to suffer through that, asks Mr Manoharan.
Mechanisation of the looms will help ease his effort and with the production increasing, he will be able to earn more. However, even using a small motor will spoil the concept of handloom, according to him. “The government does not recognise it as handloom. For years, representations have been submitted to various governments to change its handloom policy. But it has not brought in the desired change,” he says. Gandhi was never against machines, but “the craze for machinery” which would leave people unemployed, he says.
On one hand, traditional weavers struggle, and on the other, larger profit-making establishments use power looms to make ‘fake khadi’ available, according to Gandhi Peace Foundation joint secretary V. Sukumar. These are reasons why one would not find weavers younger than 50 years at the Smarak Nidhi’s Parassala unit. Handloom silk will be around only until the retirement of people like Mr Subramanian. While life is tough, he says, he has no complaints.
