By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS
New Delhi : Tussar, the crisp, shining fabric that goes into making saris, jackets and all kinds of apparel for the well heeled, is facing a rough patch on its home turf in eastern India.
Weavers in the villages of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh are battling a shortfall in the supply of silk thread. The production of cocoons – from which the Tussar silk fibre is derived – has been affected by a combination of natural and manmade factors.
Deforestation, a fickle climate, the stranglehold of middlemen, growing state control over acquisition of cocoons, poor distribution and marketing and uneven pricing have taken their toll.
It has consequently affected the quality of tussar silk produced in the country. India grows nearly 120,000 tonnes of tussar cocoons annually on 165,000 hectares of mulberry plantations.
“Tussar cocoons are not being cultivated in adequate numbers and mulberry plantations devoted to tussar are dying because of neglect,” said Niranjan Kumar Poddar, secretary of one of the largest silk weavers’ cooperatives in Bihar, the Berozgar Mahila Kalyan Sanstha in Bhagalpur.
The NGO employs 3,600 poor women, mostly firewood gatherers, from villages in Bhagalpur, Banka (in Bihar) and Sahibganj, Godda (in Jharkhand), who weave tussar, muga and andi silk in four workshops-cum-production centres spread across these districts.
The Sanstha, which is in Delhi to hawk its cache of tussar saris, apparel textiles and shawls at a Nature Bazaar organised at Dilli Haat by Dastkar, a society for crafts and craftspeople, is doing brisk business.
But “production shortfall apart, it is becoming very difficult to buy cocoons because of rising prices and quality fluctuations”, Poddar said. Tussar fibres derived from cocoons cultivated in Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh cost Rs.1,200 per kg, but for the last two years we have not been able to source a single cocoon from the state.”
The Central Silk Board, Bangalore, TRIFED and the Chhattisgarh state government have been buying the entire stock grown in the villages of Bastar in Chhattisgarh. The Silk Board has created a pool – the Cocoon Bank in Chaibasa in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand – to supply cocoons to weavers at a subsidised cost.
“The bulk of the cocoons goes to government cooperatives. There is nothing for NGOs like us,” Poddar said. Fibres from cocoons grown locally in Dumka, Kathikund and Deogarh in Jharkhand are priced Rs.3,200 per kg.
“But the threads are of poor quality because the cocoons, unlike those grown in Chhattisgarh, are hard. This is telling on the quality of the weave. The silk is lighter and not resilient enough,” Poddar said.
The tussar fibre is also under siege from the influx of cheaper Chinese silk in the market.
Deforestation has destroyed vast acres of mulberry plantations in 15 of the 22 tribal districts in Orissa.
“We are getting the bulk of our tussar yarn from Bangalore, which is very expensive. It costs between Rs.1,500 to Rs.2,200 per kg depending upon the count. But in a bale of 5 kg, at least 200 grams are rejected during quality check,” said Jayant Sahoo of the Orissa-based weavers’ NGO, Bunaikar.
“Local tussar, though cheaper at Rs.1,800 a kg, is difficult to get because of low productivity.”
The NGO, based in Baragarh and Barpalli bordering Chhattisgarh employs 32 weavers, all women from local self-help groups. The tussar industry here is controlled by small-time traders and middlemen who dictate the prices.
Rehbher Handlooms, an NGO of 10 women from Maheswar town in Madhya Pradesh that weaves at least 100 to 200 kg of silk every year, does not have any “avenue” to retail or sell its products.
Officials of the Central Silk Board, Bangalore, say the government is doing its best to help the weavers.
“Climatic fluctuations, growing conditions and deforestation have taken their toll on the production of tussar cocoons because it is a forest-based industry. The Silk Board has set up a cocoon bank, a centralised collection centre, in Jharkhand to bail out farmers,” a senior official of the Central Silk Board told IANS from Bangalore.
Layla Tayabji, chairperson of Dastkar, feels that indigenous crafts need “permanent display space and artisans more incentives.” The crafts sector is still looked at as “millions of cheap hands”, she said.