Handloom saris from Shirva for Mamata Banerjee

Ganesh Prabhu, The Hindu

Kolkata Mayor has placed order for 300 saris to be given to the Railway Minister

 
 

BOUND FOR KOLKATA:Harishchandra Shettigar showing the cotton sari made for Mamata Baneerjee at Shirva in Udupi district on Thursday.

 

Shirva, 30 October 2010: The beats of the looms reverberates through the house of Harishchandra Shettigar here. But now his house has become famous after news spread that he has orders to weave saris for Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.

 

The Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation has asked two weavers from Udupi district and three from Dakshina Kannada have been entrusted the work of weaving 300 cotton saris for Ms. Banerjee. Besides Mr. Shettigar from Shirva, Suresh Shettigar from Ambalpady, Mukund Shettigar, Narayan Shettigar and Purshotham Shettigar from Mijar are carrying out the task.R. Shivamurugan, assistant project-cum-quality control officer of the corporation, told The Hindu on Thursday that these saris were ordered by the Mayor of Kolkata for Ms. Banerjee. “Initially in June, the Mayor had given a sample sari and asked us to produce 10 samples. But after seeing the quality, he placed an order for 300 saris,”he said. Mr. Shettigar said, the saris being produced are done using 80 count pure cotton yarn. The width of the sari is 116 centimetres and the length is 5.50 metres. The 80 count yarn makes the sari smooth and soft. The first order for 30 saris for Ms. Banerjee had come in June and the corporation wanted four saris ready by August 15, which he did.

 

“They had given me a sample sari, which I followed. About 15 days ago, the corporation approached me again with an order of 30 saris and I am now working on it,” he said.Mr. Shettigar said he was helped in this task by his 80-year-old mother Sunanda Shettigar and his wife Saraswati Shettigar.Besides the fact that saris were being weaved for Ms. Banerjee, there is another story of dwindling fortunes of weavers in the district.

 

Says Mr. Shettigar: “About 40 years ago, there were 3,000 weaving looms in Udupi taluk, now there are only 100.

 

“In my own neighbourhood, there were six families with 18 looms, now only my family with three looms continues weaving”.Mr. Shettigar, who is now 62, said that he had begun weaving when he was 18.

“We don’t get much income by weaving. It is a back-breaking work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It takes three days to weave two saris without any distraction,fetches me just Rs. 200 per sari.”