Author: John Mary
Publication: Outlook
Date: February 12, 2007
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/mad.asp?fodname=20070212&fname=Making&sid=1
Introduction: In the last three decades, the
looms changed the fate of many families in the village
When 'master' weaver P. Gopinathan laid the
foundation for his handlooms in a Kerala village some 30 years ago, there
were very few inducements to cushion his start-ups. The government tax rebate
for handloom fabrics and Khadi and Village Industries Board grants were the
sole incentives. Gopinathan organised women, gifted them his small plot to
set up looms and taught them weaving.
He enrolled them in a mahila samaj and when the first unit became viable,
he set up several looms atop a hillock at Manjavilakom village, some 30 km
from Thiruvananthapuram. Today almost 1,500 women work in 600-odd looms, sprawled
across 10 acres.
The motive for setting up looms stemmed from
his own childhood struggles. Gopinathan was the seventh among ten children
in a backward weaver's family.
It was poverty all around. "I discontinued
studies in the sixth standard, left home and toured South India, learning
from master weavers. Back home, I knew weaving was the sole option though
many looms had started folding up, unable to face stiff competition from the
power looms," he recalls.
But he knew the quality of cotton, use of
natural dyes, fresh designs, dexterity of weaving and the demand in the '70s
for ethnic clothes were all loaded in favour of hand-woven fabrics.
Gopinathan was clever in choosing women for
his enterprise. They always stood by him and never struck work for a wage
hike, he says. "All these are my children," he points to the woman
weavers, who weave the Malayali's favourite mundu (dhoti), traditional Kerala
saris and bed spreads.
Today each weaver earns an average of Rs 125
a day. Says J. Vijayambika, president of the Twinkle Mahila Samajam, one of
the cooperatives Gopinathan helped float: "Had it not been for the Master's
(that's how Gopinathan is referred to) spirit of enterprise, we would all
be poor housewives." Vijayambika earns more than her husband, a tailor.
Padmavati, another beneficiary, says she was able to marry off her daughter
recently because the 27 mahila samajams presented her Rs 20,000. "Such
family needs are our collective concern," says Ambika Devi, secretary
of the Viswa Mahila Samajam.
Gopinathan also runs the Gandhi Smaraka Technical
School for SC/ST girls, teaching them tailoring and embroidery. But he is
looking forward to help from the state government to set up a general school
for imparting training in weaving.
Contact Njarakkal Mukalil Veedu, Manjavila
PO, Dhanuvachapuram (via), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala-695503
