Kalva Muttaiah has been weaving sarees since the past four decades, and has become an expert in weaving the Gollabhama and Batukamma variety.
Gollabhama sarees are globally famous, and even have the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
It takes Muttaiah three days to weave a saree — which carry a design of Gollabhamas (women from Golla community) carrying Batukammas on their heads. He gets paid only Rs. 350 for each saree by a master weaver. His sons did not find this expertise useful and instead went out in search of better pastures.
To make ends meet, Muttaiah continues to do his job, as he can do nothing at the age of 65. These designs are made when the sarees is being weaved, instead of getting the design printed — a common practice when making other varieties of sarees. Officials also withdrew his antyodaya card recently, denying him the benefit of receiving 35 kg rice a month.
“There once used to be around 2,000 expert weavers of Gollabhama sarees. Now that number has reduced to not more than two dozen,” says Tumma Tulasiram, a master weaver. While his wife, Lalitha, rolls beedis to supplement the income, his 80-year-old mother, Bhumavva, makes cotton threads using an instrument called Chitike Chitle. It takes her two days to make a roll, and for that she gets paid Rs. 50 — or a meagre Rs. 25 a day.
The situation of many weavers has been deteriorating by the day. And, they are cautioning their children not to take up this profession. “The product is not doing well in the market, despite being one of the best hand-woven products. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who promised the moon for weavers, has been doing nothing about it. We are on the brink of collapse. Who will come to our rescue?” says Tumma Galaiah. He says that the next generation will end up only reading about such sarees, as there won’t be any weavers alive in the next 10 years.
