The villages of Kuthampully, Eramathody, Thiruvilwamala and Pazhambalakode, along the banks of the river Nila in Kerala’s Thrissur and Malappuram districts, hold a rich tradition of weaving. The famous handloom products of the Kuthampully weavers, as they are called, even have a Geographical Index (GI) tag. However, the region, which used to have a thriving tradition of handloom weaving a few decades ago, now has only a few scattered co-operative weaving societies.
People who visit the region flock to a number of textile showrooms with big boards advertising their ‘handloom’ products, while largely ignoring the tiled-roof buildings with faded boards, which are less attractive. In fact, these small shops are the ones that house traditional handloom sarees, mundus, towels and other textiles; the other showrooms dupe customers by actually selling power loom products.
Like any other traditional occupation, weavers in Kuthampully also struggle to survive. Decades ago, there were thousands of weavers in the region, while now the number has dwindled to around 200. The traditional weavers in Kuthampully are mostly from the Devanga and Muthaliyar communities. Apart from trying to protect their art, they are also struggling to maintain their livelihood, especially in recent times.
Recently, an initiative called the ‘Kuthampully Task Force [KTF]’ by Vayali Folklore, a group of people on a mission to revive traditional artforms along the Nila river, gained attention on social media. This group of youngsters is helping weavers sell their piled-up stock and secure a good market for them, so that the industry and the weavers can survive.
"There are three weaving co-operative societies, Kuthampully, Eramathody and Thiruvilwamala. The first two have some infrastructure, but the Thiruvilwamala society has very poor facilities. So we have decided to start with them. Our aim is to save the Kuthampully weavers that come under these societies," Vinod Nambiar Director at Vayali Folklore Group said.
The weavers make some money by selling material to Hantex and Hanveev, which are government-run retail outlets that sell the products of various co-operative societies. They also provide material for government-sponsored school uniforms. However, the major issues faced by them are loss of market and pending payments from the government.
"From the government, Rs 50 lakh is pending to the Thiruvilwamala society alone. More than Rs 1 crore is pending if we consider the other societies too. We have no idea how we are going to survive. Only very few people remain in this traditional profession now," Maithri Kumar Muthaliyar, a weaver and President of the Thiruvilwamala weaver’s society, said. The pending money from the government includes that from various schemes, compensation for rebates and the price of the products that they sell to Hantex and Hanveev.
According to Maithri Kumar, there were once more than 5,000 weavers in the area. "Now we have just around 100 weavers. Also, there are no youngsters among us. They have dropped their traditional profession and gone looking for other jobs that get them a living," he added.
Competition with power loom businesses is another issue for these weavers. "The power loom industry provides variety and cheaper products. These traditional weavers cannot compete with them as it takes a lot of time for them to weave textiles. They are allowed to give rebates only when the government announces it, but power loom textiles provide products at cheaper rates," Vinod of Vayali Folklore said.
"The power loom textile shops in Kuthampully keep some handlooms at the back of their showrooms to make the customers think that they sell handloom products. Moreover, their products will have more colour variety and collection," he added. Additionally, he says that power loom owners do not buy products from the traditional weavers; instead, they bring low-cost materials from neighbouring states and sell them in the regions where handlooms are famous.
Among all these issues, the handloom products get piled up in the co-operative society showroom over the years, while the number of customers decreases.
"On top of that, two floods and now COVID-19 affected their market very badly in the last three years. Mainly, they get good sales during festivals. But for the last three years, festival season sales were also down," Vinod said.
Many handloom societies were also shut down over the years. "Now there are no weavers below 40 years of age," he added.
Rukmini, a member of the Thiruvilwamala Weavers’ Society, said that a weaver hardly earns Rs 200 a day now. "Before the floods, we used to conduct exhibitions at different cities in Kerala. Sale was better and a weaver used to earn an average of Rs 500 a day. Now we don't even get half the amount," she said.
She also pointed out that in her society, there used to be more than 100 weavers; now there are only 45 of them.
"Many of them started going for daily wage work. Since they get good money in construction and other daily wage jobs, they are reluctant to come back to weaving. We are struggling to protect this tradition with such few weavers," she said.
To add to the problems created by lack of weavers and sales, the societies have also accrued huge debts. "We have to pay Rs 40,000 to 50,000 as interest to banks. When there are no sales, we become more indebted," Rukmini said.
However, the weavers’ woes don’t end there. Societies have limited the stock intake from the artisans, as there are no funds or infrastructure to store them. "We just have one old building without any maintenance. So when we keep the clothes, it catches fungus. Since the stock piled up, we had to hire labourers and dry them in the sun," Rukmini shared.
According to Maithri Kumar, the Kuthampully weavers need strong support from the government to revive their industry. "If we get all the pending money from the government it would be a great relief," he said.
Vinod pointed out that there should be proper policy intervention to protect the tradition of handloom weaving, as well as to provide a stable livelihood in this profession.
A demand raised by the KTF was that textiles should have a sign or mark that differentiates handloom and power loom products. "Let the power loom textiles function here, but they should not claim their products are original handloom ones. They should not deceive. Let them sell products while revealing to the customer that they are manufactured by power loom," Vinod said.
He added that local self-government bodies can also direct big textile industries to take at least 10% stock from the traditional weavers.
According to Vinod, the Kuthampully weaving industry is mostly under the control of big businesses. Many weavers don't even know that their handloom products have secured the GI tag.
Though the weaving community here face many issues, if a portion of the existing stock is sold, it would provide some temporary relief. To help with this, the KTF team has arranged for an online platform to sell the products at the earliest. The team has already started the process of photo shoots of the products as well. They have coordinated with Impresa.in, a fashion website started by entrepreneur Anjali Chandran, who is based in Kozhikode.
"Soon Kuthampully handloom products will be available for sale on the website. We are in the process of achieving that," Vinod shared.
However, he emphasised the need for a permanent solution to the problems of the weavers: a stable market.
"Around 30 volunteers from an NGO named Social Town based in Kochi have stepped in to do the promotions, campaigns and publicity for this drive," Vinod said. Since the weavers are not used to the internet and managing sales online, the KTF has two people dedicated to the online platform.