WEAVERS OF TRICHY Earning less than daily wage workers 1
Content IntroductioN 1 Musiri, the town 2 Uraiyur, the town 6 Challenges faced by the weavers of Tiruchirapalli 8 Action plan 9
IntroductioN Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) has initiated a model that primarily involves inclusive and decentralised use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in critical aspects of cluster development, especially to improve and scale up weaving skills, designs, marketing and entrepreneurship, besides creating sustainable livelihood options for youth in the clusters. With this goal, a team from DEF visited Musiri and Uaiyur in Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu to identify the cluster we want to empower and to check the feasibility of the project. Team members: Mohammad John and Najath Date of visit: December 18, 2015 Locations visited: Musiri and Uraiyur (Woraiyur) in Tamil Nadu 1
Musiri, the town Musiri is a panchayat town in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu, and is located at a distance of 50 kilometres from the city of Tiruchirapalli. With the male and female population of the town divided in the ratio of 50:5, Musiri has an average literacy rate of 75 per cent, higher than the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy is 80 per cent while female literacy stands at 69 per cent. In this town, about 2,500 families are spread across within a radius of five kilometres. Musiri is an Assembly constituency under Perambalur Parliamentary constituency. The town, however, has no proper sanitation facilities or access to a primary health centre. There is a government hospital and a high school nearby, both of which are about two kilometres away from Musiri. There is also a higher secondary school nearby. Musiri is well connected by road but the nearest railway station is a few towns away. 2
Weaving cluster Musiri is a cluster of weavers who hail from low-income families and mostly weave sarees or dhoti. Almost every weaving household, barring three who work on powerlooms, weave on handloom (or craftlooms). Alike most other weaving clusters in the country, here too, the occupation is a family tradition where the art of weaving has been passed down the generations, therefore, the entire family is involved in the weaving process. In fact, children start weaving as early as at the age of 10. Women in the house spend about three to four hours separating and spinning the thread while men work on the loom for about eight hours a day, producing a simple saree in two to three days or set of six to nine dhotis in a day or two. 3
Most of these weaver families work on a wage system, making sarees of dhotis, where they work for a middlemen or private businessmen on a design sample given to them. The raw material are bought by them or provided to them from Salem and Rasipuram. There are very few weavers who independently weave to produce and market their products due to lack of awareness, knowledge and access to the direct market. This explains the low wages that they earn for their work. Weavers are paid Rs. 250 per saree and Rs. 1,200 for nine dhotis. The same are then sold in the market for much higher prices, especially the sarees. Unfortunately, this low wage translates into the middlemen treating the weavers as labourers and not skilled artisans. 4
This probably explains why only 25 per cent of the population is involved in the weaving occupation while the rest have migrated to other professions and are working as masons, house helps, carpenters, porters and security guards among other occupations. Even the younger literate generation is looking for job opportunities in bigger towns or cities. Musiri is not very old, some say that it has only seen major establishment and development about 40 years ago. Despite being a newer town, there has hardly been any improvement in the wages in the last 10 years. Language is a major issue for people who don t understand the local language. Caste is not a barrier in this part of India, and there is no discrimination on the basis of caste or sex. While weavers are very friendly, supportive and cooperative to each other, they are not much aware of the various government policies that may prove beneficial for them. Fortunately though, the weavers are willing to incorporate newer techniques into their traditional art to increase their wages. However, so far, there is no provision for digital literacy in Musiri. There are also four women self-help groups that are trying to make a contribution to the community. 5
Uraiyur, the town Urayur is at the distance of 10 kilometres from the main city of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, and is home to only about 5,000 households. It was the capital of the early Chola dynasty, which was one of the three main kingdoms of the ancient Tamil country. There are three high schools within a fivekilometre radius, two higher secondary schools and two government hospitals. The nearest railway station is five kilometres away, but the town has access to a computer training centre. 6
Weaving cluster There are very few families that are still involved in the weaving occupation in this town that was once a flourishing weaving cluster. The town was once full of Saurashtra and the most backward class people who were excellent weavers, however, only about 15 families are registered under a cooperative society now. Plagued by the extremely low wages, most of the families have migrated to other professions. The few who are still into weaving, only weave in their spare time to keep up their passion for weaving. A weaver in this cluster doesn t earn more than Rs. 4,000 a month, however, the same person can earn upto Rs. 8,000 if he migrates to another profession. Raj Mohan is a weaver from Uraiyur who had migrated to a government job in search of a stable monthly income. Courtesy this stable income, his children are educated and placed well today his son is an Ooty-based doctor and his daughter is an engineer. However, once Raj retired from service, he returned to weaving in an effort to keep alive the tradition of weaving in his family. Challenges faced by the weavers of Tiruchirapalli: 7
Challenges faced by the weavers of Tiruchirapalli There is no effective cooperative society to sell products in the market There is a lack of knowledge among weavers about the market Once a saree has been made, the weaver has no clue where and for how much it is sold in the market Exploitative middlemen play the major role in exporting products Power cuts are too frequent There is hardly any government or panchayat support to weaving clusters The government s cluster development programmes seems to have not seeped into Musiri or Uraiyur The weavers are open to adopt modern techniques but they are not supported in the same The government has provided the weavers with laptops but there is no Internet facility in the villages 8
Action plan Based on the recce visit, DEF will take the following steps in the months to come in an effort to bring about an intervention in the identified weaving cluster: 1. A baseline survey needs to be carried out to gauge the needs and problems of the weavers with a deeper understanding. 2. A detailed analysis of the survey has to be done so that the digital cluster development programme can be customised to suit the needs of the cluster. 3. A space has to be identified and rented for an integrated design resource centre for digital literacy, digital services and information services. 4. Infrastructure needs to be set up and resource material procured. 5. The team has to identify and recruit local resource persons and, if need be, a local implementation partner. 6. A digital programme need to be created, best suited for the weavers of the identified cluster 7. Mobilisation and publicity of the integrated recourse centre needs to be carried out. 8. Basic computer training for the cluster has to be followed by digital design training. 9
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Project contact persons: John M: john@defindia.org Udita Chaturvedi: udita@defindia.org Digital Cluster Development Programme in Trichy district is a joint initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation and Mphasis. www.defindia.org Digital Empowerment Foundation House #44, 2nd & 3rd Floor, Kalu Sarai, New Delhi-110017 Tel: 91-11-26532786 www.mphasis.com Mphasis Limited Bagmane World Technology Center, Marathahalli Outer Ring Road, Doddanakundi Village, Mahadevapura, Bangalore - 560 048 Tel: +91 80 3352 5000 12