Warangal: Award to boost weavers' morale

Warangal: Hand loom weavers in mechanised world neither get adequate facilities nor proper recognition. Promising textile-park and other facilities, the state government called back many local weavers who had settled in Surat to Telangana. The state government may take at least three years to fulfil its promise.

Many families from Ellanda in Wardhannapet mandal and Kothawada in Warangal depend on weaving for livelihood. About 150 families returned to Ellanda on the assurance of Kadiam Srihari and local MLA, Aroori Ramesh.

Pitta Ramulu of Kothawada in Warangal decided to change the scenario and worked hard to promote the work of his community. His true grit got him national recognition as the union textile ministry overseeing handloom weavers, felicitated him with the Sant Kabir Award for the year 2015. The 56-year-old received the award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 7, national handloom day.

This is the first time in a 100 years of Warangal handloom industry that a weaver has got national recognition. Mr. Ramulu worked on a dhurrie taking inspiration from a painting from a London museum depicting a hunting scene from the Mughal era.

“We hope this would help the local industry do better. We can display our work at national and international exhibitions. Earlier we did not even get entry to such platforms. We lack marketing support here,” he said.

The award winning dhurrie cost '1.2 lakh. It took one year to procure the special type of yarn, dyes and then design it. Weaving took four months for the design was complicated. But the effort brought cheer to not just Ramulu but the entire weaver community.

Handloom Export Durries Weavers Association, President, Ch Venkateshwarlu urged the state government to wake up to the needs of the weavers at least now and ensure budget and marketing support.