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 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 The town, however, has no proper sanitation district of Tamil Nadu, and is located at a distance facilities or access to a primary health centre. of 50 kilometres from the city of Tiruchirapalli. There is a government hospital and a high school With the male and female population of the nearby, both of which are about two kilometres town divided in the ratio of 50:5, Musiri has an away from Musiri. There is also a higher average literacy rate of 75 per cent, higher than secondary school nearby. Musiri is well connected the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy is 80 by road but the nearest railway station is a few per cent while female literacy stands at 69 per towns away. 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.

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 awareness, knowledge and access to the direct system, making sarees of dhotis, where they market. This explains the low wages that they work for a middlemen or private businessmen earn for their work. Weavers are paid Rs. 250 per on a design sample given to them. The raw saree and Rs. 1,200 for nine dhotis. The same are material are bought by them or provided to then sold in the market for much higher prices, them from Salem and Rasipuram. There are especially the sarees. Unfortunately, this low very few weavers who independently weave to wage translates into the middlemen treating the produce and market their products due to lack of 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 , 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 There are three high schools within a five- the main city of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, and is kilometre radius, two higher secondary schools home to only about 5,000 households. It was the and two government hospitals. The nearest capital of the early , which was one railway station is five kilometres away, but the of the three main kingdoms of the ancient Tamil town has access to a computer training centre. country.

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.T he 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 • There is hardly any government or panchayat sell products in the market support to weaving clusters

• There is a lack of knowledge among weavers • The government’s cluster development about the market programmes seems to have not seeped into Musiri or Uraiyur • Once a saree has been made, the weaver has no clue where and for how much it is sold in • The weavers are open to adopt modern the market techniques but they are not supported in the same • Exploitative middlemen play the major role in exporting products • The government has provided the weavers with laptops but there is no Internet facility in • Power cuts are too frequent 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 10 11 Project contact persons: John M: [email protected] Udita Chaturvedi: [email protected]

Digital Cluster Development Programme in Trichy district is a joint initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation and Mphasis.

www.defindia.org www.mphasis.com

Digital Empowerment Mphasis Limited Foundation Bagmane World Technology Center, House #44, 2nd & 3rd Marathahalli Outer Ring Road, Floor, Kalu Sarai, Doddanakundi Village, New Delhi-110017 Mahadevapura, Bangalore - 560 048 Tel: 91-11-26532786 Tel: +91 80 3352 5000

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