Life of a WEAVER's child

Life of a WEAVER's child
Nuapatna, Tigiria, Cuttack, Odisha
21st Feb 2013.

Child of a weaver is still in risk which i feel even if today's modern age. I have been brought up in a small town bandhabahal which is near to the handloom industry located in sambalpur, bargarh and famous for sambalpuri sarees for it handloom designs. But i never got a chance to visit any weavers family until i was 15. For the First time i saw handloom designs during summer of 1993 and because i was first time visited a place call Nuapatna in Cuttack district. I today felt lucky that i have been to Nuapatna and able to see best cotton saree designs even during 90s. Actually my sister's marriage fixed in Nuapatna and luckly they lived in a house surrounded by weaver families or you can say TANTI families.

Afterwards i have visited thousands of time to Nuapatna, live there in my summer holidays, play, roam, do picnic with weavers children. They used to work from very small age and make some money to fulfill there family's financial problem. some of the childs sit left of the main weaver and help them to allign the thread properly for beautiful handloom designs.

Some of the children makes money by removing the binding made by main designer after colouring the latest saree designs. I knew some of the small boys sudha, karuna and madhu who help there families since childhood. Education is not much importance for them. Sometime i felt guilty because when i was in 20s still i depends upon my father to study and go on in my daily expenses. but they used to spend by there own. They are really brilliant boys who can make best cotton saree designs, can weave latest saree designs which now we started and show handloom silk sarees online.

There are handloom weaving communities live around Nuapatna, Maniabandh and Abhimanpur. I have visited all these villages many times in last 20 years but my love for them started really this year. Weaver population is around 20000 around these palces. In Nuapatna, mostly we find Pata weavers (silk sarees) ,in Maniabandha and Kusikiyari only cotton sarees are woven with best handloom fabrics. Handloom sector is known as the second largest employment sector after agriculture in India and Odisha has a major share in it. Still child labour rates are shooting up every year in all the sectors. We need to eduacate people and help there childrens to study in the tender age and help them to grow as a normal citizen. They can make more better in handloom sector if they have good knowledge and mind.

We will definitely help weavers to achieve this goal and help them to stop child labour. Let the children enjoy there time and fulfill parents wish after there study.

Odisha Saree Store Team