“I belong to the community of handloom weavers. Everyone in our family divides the work equally and every month, we weave around 8-10 sarees. Our district, Yadadri Bhongir, is an important cluster for the handloom weavers and we predominantly weave the pochampally ikkat sarees here.

After completing my morning work, I sit down here to do the winding process of Tie & Dye yarn. The spinning wheel is used to prepare spools and spindles of the thread and without this, the weaving of the saree will not begin. It requires a lot of focus as each process we do is interlinked to the final outcome of the pochampally saree.

By this time, every year, we usually receive orders from our dealers across the country. Just when we were coming out of the losses incurred during the first phase of the lockdown last year, the second wave had hit us even worse. However, we must agree that the pandemic has brought a change in social perspective as many are learning to support us including the local NGOs and the state government with the Chenetha Mitra and Chenetha Bima schemes. Sales get tough in a price-sensitive market like the handloom industry but the government is working to increase awareness in such segments through online marketing these days with the support of local NGOs.

Things seem hopeful and we are slowly getting back to work in full strength. We are dependent on the festive season and we hope we could get more orders for the upcoming Bathukamma and Dussehra festivals.”

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