ODISHA IKATS

ODISHA IKATS are famous for their fine curvilinear patterns. The tying of the pattern for weft ikat sarees is a long and tedious process and often takes longer to tie the pattern than weave a saree. Depending on the intricacy of the pattern, it can take anywhere from a week to a month or more to tie dye the weft pattern for a saree. Artisans follow the pattern on a graph paper to tie the weft threads before dyeing. The sarees are woven on a basic two peddle pitloom. The skill is in adjusting the weft threads while weaving for clarity of the pattern. Two people often weave together, one adjusts the salvage thread to match the pattern and the other throws the shuttle.

Children assisting their parents is a traditional and socially acceptable way of learning their ancestral skills. A few years back, over sixty or eighty families in Bargarh district were fined by the child labour department for treating their children as child labour. Weavers were completely baffled by this ridiculous allegation of using their children as child labour. It created a lot of agitation and the weavers had to go to court to resolve the matter. For them, learning these skills would help continue their traditional vocation. In times when other employment is hard to find these skills can help to earn a livelihood.

Weavers prefer to weave on their pitlooms which they find more comfortable than the bulky framelooms. In their small home they can incorporate two or three pitlooms and still be able to walk around the space but would not be able to fit even a single frame loom. Most houses in the villages today are in brick, with cement plaster, but they continue to retain the mud and cow dung mix flooring. This helps to keep the pits of the loom cool and retain moisture which helps the warp threads from snapping while weaving the fabric. Handloom production is a collective effort where the whole family is involved. A weaver cannot work in isolation as he needs the support of his wife and other family members in preparing the warp, winding the bobbins etc. They collectively earn anywhere between Rs. 8000 to Rs.15000 per month, depending on their skill and production. The weavers enjoy the freedom of working from their homes at their own convenience, instead of going to a noisy production shed with multiple framelooms or powerloom factories and work under the dictates of the factory supervisors.

There are 45,000 handlooms in use in Odisha against 500 powerlooms, with over two lakh people involved in handloom production. Women in Odisha continue to prefer wearing their traditional, cotton ikat saris. The state government encourages handloom production to support livelihood programs. Government policies such as women in government service and school teachers are expected to wear handloom sarees. Even the school uniforms are in ikat or handloom fabrics. This offers regular work to a large number of weavers. Almost 80% of the handloom production is consumed within the state, which has sustained the handloom production and is one of the best examples of local produce, local use.

September 27, 2021 | View: 1928 | Categories: Odisha | By: Archana Shah