Jaya Jaitly is an indefatigable crusader of our crafts and textiles. For the past several decades, she has been working tirelessly through her Dastkari Haat Samiti to empower artisans and spread awareness about Indian crafts. Her latest effort is to revive the handspun gamchha (the mutli-coloured cotton towel) used in various parts of India. Excerpts from an interview with the conservationist.
What led you to conceive this project?
Like the lungi, the gamchha has been an essential part of the lives of the working class male population of India . While the lungi has almost succumbed to powerlooms, the gamchha continues to be the poor man’s comfort clothing.
However, cheap Chinese towels are taking over many of the pavements in UP, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.
For the past 10 years, I have been trying to draw the attention of the Textile Ministry towards the plight of the simple but skilled weavers of gamchhas. But they seem to prefer to add value to an already high-value stuff and are now concentrating on the established weavers of Varanasi with interventions by top designers who only raise the already high cost.
If the gamchha weavers fade away, no one would even notice because policy makers don’t use gamchhas.
So eventually last May, on a fact-finding trip to three states regarding powerloom-versus-handloom debate, I came across many women gamchha weavers in West Bengal and the creative activist in me got going.
What is the focus of your gamchha project? Is the gamchha sari a new creation?
This project has three goals — increase livelihood and respect for handloom weavers, promote the sari as a beautiful textile among the younger generation and introduce the gamchha into the lives of other people. In fact the gamchha can also be used for blouses. Bibi Russel developed the gamchha sari in Bangladesh much before I did and I applaud her commitment to use design for development. Some designers are waking up to the gamchha in India. Thanks to the ‘Registry of Sarees’ for helping us in taking it across the country.
What are the design interventions you have made and could you also tell us about the gamchhasari making process?
Our designer Ankit Kumar’s interventions were largely in making the gamchha weavers think about the piece of cloth in terms of saris. They did not understand designs on paper. Even packing and transporting were new concepts for them as they always sold gamchhas by carting them off to the nearest market on their shoulders or cycles. We started with four looms with 25 saris per loom to get our first 100. It was really amazing that not a single sari emerged the same as the other and all were beautiful. I guess the goddesses held the weavers’ hands.
How does your project benefit the gamchha weavers?
That is the best part. They earned Rs.30 or Rs. 40 per day weaving gamchhas. We have been able to help them earn Rs. 150 a day by weaving a sari. It is 300 per cent increase in earnings. Gamchha is made and used in West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Assam.
Do you want to expand this to other states?
We hope to first expand four looms to 15 in Bengal and also make a foray into Odisha as gamchhas there are quite different and have great design potential.
Shouldn’t handlooms and revival of textiles be included in the ‘Make in India’ campaign?
They should be highlighted and honoured as an important part of the campaign. Actually we lack imagination in showcasing our textiles. The Government has a medieval approach as far as presentation goes and relies on online marketing link-ups and fashion shows.
What are your future plans for the gamchha project?
It would involve a big jump in production to meet the growing demand and constant experiments to promote the handloom gamchha saris. I hope to show the Government that our modest working plan has been extremely viable and successful. If they could support such ventures rather than huge projects worth crores, it would show better results.
