Handloom and the Government

There are so many schemes and bodies trying to organize this industry. Let us look at some of the attempts. Warning - Cynicism ahead.

National Handloom Day Handloom and our country are like an old married couple, but deeply troubled. A dysfunctional family which runs from weavers to buyers and on till retail. A lot goes on behind the perfect dressed-up appearances. While I haven’t peeked so far behind the curtain, there are a few performances I have attended. It was a year ago in Bhubaneswar. The occasion was National Handloom Day, and here is my Dear Diary. A day before, on the 6th of August, a couple of students, including myself were called by our CC for a meeting. We were confused because these things happen usually when someone has been naughty. Maybe a complaint or some snitched gossip. In hindsight, we were all from different states. Tulika from Jamshedpur, Malavika from Kochi, and I am from Bhubaneswar. With wary steps and murmuring to each other, we enter the staff room. “Tomorrow all of you will be going to SOA University for the National Handloom Day celebration. You will be representing NIFT and wear handlooms for the occasion” said our CC.    We nodded our heads quite quickly to the day off from classes, who wouldn’t? Besides a part of us was a little excited about exclusivity we get for attending these events. Besides that, we were the cream of the crop, few students selected from the entire class (of course the list has since changed). There were a couple of other students from other departments as well who will join us the day after. So, the day had arrived and so did the buses to carry us to the venue. I assume all excitedly clamoured in and made a respectable amount of noise expected from college students. While I would have loved to boo all students stuck to attending classes, my dad was dropping me off. I remember it was raining when I reached. Big, big banners were put up everywhere. But the campus (the venue was at an auditorium of a university) was still bigger and empty. I called my friends and found the entrance where there was a crowd of people. Everything was still a little too big for me. There are many events which happen in Bhubaneswar, but this seemed to be a little over-dressed for the crowd you usually expect. But then I see it, it all makes sense now. The guest of honour is Smriti Irani, Textile Minister of India. Now we were excited. We have been promised her visit multiple times the past two years. But at every convocation, she would never be there and despite all the rumours which would float. But this time it wasn’t a rumour. It is right there, in bold letters everywhere and also her pictures. One my friend on seeing this starts revising his list of questions he prepared from the day he joined college. Why is the tuition fee so high? Why don’t we have good teachers? Why are there so many facilities missing? And it went on for a while. Soon the crowd poured in the auditorium taking their places. NIFT students were placed the furthest behind. Closest to the auditorium were all the weavers and artisans who had come from their clusters. It must have been hours of a trip for them. I am guessing just like for us, the govt. must have sponsored all the expenses for them coming here. Soon we have all settled and then we wait. I had come prepared for this, by bringing a box of cinnamon rolls. We are all adults here; we know how long these events take to even start. Pretty much all guests to such events show up late. Even if not, there is always that one guest who would hold up the entire thing. While we were all patiently nibbling on the rolls, a rumour floated up from people below, honourable Smriti Irani will not be gracing us her presence. Not very soon after the rumour floated up the programme started and still no Smriti Irani. Ah, we all just sighed hoping the buffet would be nice. The programme was a blur. The amount of information I remember right now is oddly the same as I did while attending the event. An overenthusiastic anchor followed by bored ministers. I guess some weren’t, but we have already established we were ignorant kids. Soon after poems and inspirational speeches started the award ceremony. A huge line of weavers and craftsmen were greeted with claps. A scheme was announced as well, subsidy on solar panels to all weavers. And like a checklist, once everything was ticked off, we went for the buffet. ​ After eating plenty some rubbed our bellies and some kept up the social graces by only taking one serving, we moved to the curated space. There were big textiles framed like a prize with information and booklets. We skimmed through them and took some pictures. Someone said that there was more of the programme scheduled after this. To which we all replied “Arey yaar, let’s just go back to college”.  And we did.

Indian Handloom Brand In 2015, the Indian Handloom Brand was launched. In much fanfare and I am guessing much bigger than the one I went to. If you do a quick research you will find they have a legitimate everything. A bharatiya-coloured (Green and Amber) logo, website, social media handles (which is a lot to ask, believe me), branding kit, etc. The website in itself is quite exhaustive about its purpose, objectives, etc. There is a list to describe the criteria one needs to fulfil to register your company under this. There are forms to register which do not seem to cost a lot as it starts from 500 and is capped at 5000 rupees.  The face value seemed to be worthwhile. A singular brand for all handlooms and maybe acts as THE certification into making unaware customers trust in the product. But there used to be certification before this. Handloom mark started in 2006. There are differences between the two of course. While handloom mark just certifies that the product is hand-loomed, IHB takes care of products 100% handlooms, made from natural fibres, safe or natural colours and ensuring no child labour is involved. Now, despite everything at the end of the day, it is still a carboard to be dangled on a product. What will make or break this brand is if it is successful in embedding itself in everyone’s minds. And it seems to be breaking as social media accounts seem to be last active in 2017 and the website last was updated Jan 2019. Also, “…. Neither the customer nor the craftsperson is aware of its purpose. Often, even the sales staff in handloom emporia and boutiques don’t know what the tag stands for.” [Ref. Hindustantimes] I wonder how do schemes and plans simply vanish into thin air? How does one fool a billion citizens with journalists and experts constantly keeping in check? I think we are worried about the wrong things all the time. Honestly, it is a great deal of a skill to be able to fool a billion people and it makes sense for them to win. I guess what will help is less of fancy decorations and fanfare but maybe implementing half of the things promised. But again, I am no expert.  Also, the sneaky bitches I recently learned abolished some All India Handloom Board. I never knew about. I guess covid times are bad and it’s not just the virus. 

Odisha Handloom Brand No there is no such brand, although I wish there was. In Odisha, my matrubhumi (motherland), there are around 5 major govt. ‘brands’ which sell handlooms. Boyanika, Utkalika, Sambalpuri Bastralaya and Serifed. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are in fact, more. They have all been officially labelled as marketing agencies. All of them happen to believe, Odisha in itself is a brand. Yes, it has exquisite culture, landmarks, festivals, nature, etc. But so, do the other 28 states. Hence, I do not understand why ‘Odisha’ is the only brand story here.  All of them have a good physical presence in stores, exhibitions and expos. They have managed to imprint their names amongst consumers to a large extent. It is probably because 55% of Bhubaneswar citizens still actively follow exhibitions. But at the same time, the national average is only 20%. [Report on market research]  The most popular media consumed (which comes in no surprise) is digital. (75% of Bhubaneswar and the national average of 90%) But figuring out the digital footprint of Odisha’s handloom you need like hacking capabilities. Each website to links to another and most of the domains are now up for sale, which is if you can click on any. Utkalika and Boyanika probably the most/least whatever known brands across the country and as of now they do not even have a website. Also, when I checked if they are available on Facebook and Instagram, there are many pages under the name but none of them verified or updated frequently. I happened to run into a Boyanika facebook page which seemed fake and they are selling products through it. After a lot of browsing and texting various pages, I managed to find the official ones, but they all seemed to have been forgotten years ago. The most commendable from all the brands would be Sambalpuri Bastralaya. They have a legitimate website which is still active and have an e-commerce portal as well. Other e-commerce options seem to come from various website, most popular being Orissahandloom.com and gocoop.com. I am yet to figure out which of the two are approved.  Recent news says, Odisha govt. tied up with Flipkart to start an official storefront on their website. But it is not just about selling. There is so much information to dissipate which if were put forward verified and authentically could do wonders to its awareness. But instead, a lot of players have popped into the game and no one is standing out. Probably the solution is with designers and labels. But the story of the handloom and weavers might take a backseat, as the designer/label’s takes the lead, it seems to be the most ‘visible’ solution yet.