Olympics. Vinesh Phogat is disqualified with 100 gram excess weight. No medal?
India-Srilanka ODI. India lost the series, 0-2, with one match ending in a tie. India was nowhere near giving a good fight, against spin.
Muhammad Yunus is expected to return to Bangladesh from Paris tomorrow and take oath as the interim head of government. 15 advisers support him.
Handlooms. Chenetha. Weaving by hand. Weaving longitudinal warp and lateral weft. Threads into fabric, cloth. On a loom – pit, frame loom. Holding warp. Shuttle weaving the weft. Through three actions – shedding, picking, and beating-up. Handloom work is done in a family, man and woman together. Mostly man weaves. Woman gives the weft spindles. Warping, sizing, mounting warp on the loom, colouring, designing the pattern, and transferring the patterns on to warp and weft, taking the fabric to market et al is shared. Some 2 Crore families are involved in handloom weaving, hand weaving, handicrafts, etc. Families with weaving occupation may be more than this, spread all over India, South Asia and outside. Today, full-time hand weaving families may not be more than half a crore across the country. We have moved on from earlier local, self-reliant processes – spinning on a charkha to get the yarn, weaving it into cloth, using the cloth directly and/or stitching it into garments. Cotton, silk, muslin, wool and hybrids included. Motifs, tye and dye, and kalankari included.
First we lost spinning livelihoods, increasing dependence on machine yarn. Middlemen took charge and weavers lost independence. Weavers started becoming weaving wage workers. Powerloom fabrics made handloom fabrics less competitive. Mahatma Gandhi’s inspiration has made some revival. Including Khadi promotion. The non-handloom fabric, vis-à-vis other fabrics became attractive and cost-effective. Handloom weavers are declining day-by-day. The existing weavers are becoming poorer. Except for the skilled weavers with ability to create new designs frequently. Chemical free, natural, eco fabrics are coming. Designer fabrics are coming. Thus, some weaves like Kanchi, Pochampally, Gadwal, Uppada, Venkatagiri, Dharmavaram, Burgad, Sambalpuri, Paithani, Maheswar etc., have survived and they meet the needs of the middle and higher class families. Here, lead weavers, master weavers get decent incomes. Other weavers’ incomes are less than the minimum wages considering man and woman work. And they often get work for not more than 200 days.
Hand-wovens, handicrafts are timeless. There are masters. Artists. Designers. Picassos, Da Vincies. Producing master pieces. Custom-producing when required. Need to be appreciated and rewarded. More importantly, the existing weavers should enjoy their art, craft and receive remunerative compensation. The common person should be yearning to have them, and should be having them.
Together, farm families, farmworker families, weaver families, and related activity families constitute 90%+ families in villages. Can we see them being self-reliant at the local level? Can we have their dignity fully restored? Can we have their living decent? Can we have their education, health, mobility, information, communication, and entertainment needs cared for? Can we have local systems for these, local value chains, enterprises? Can we have more of us with them?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, if we move, spread out, in flow. In N? aatmikayoga for 7L.
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