Session 26 summary
While doing the employment assessment of a village, Akashdeep’s group decided to do a project, that is to start a SHG with the women of the village. To sustain and continue the project the ladies till now are working on their own and earning. Currently, he is working with the different communities of Peshrar, Lohardaga, the community is at the border of Bihar. It is a place known to be affected by Naxalism. The project was an assessment with (Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society) as a collaboration. In the beginning, there were some language barriers but it worked out with time. The reason to start the project in Peshrar was that there was no source of employment except MGNREGA and people were migrating to other places. It is a remote place where the electricity reached in 2011, the forest wood is still used as the cooking fuel, there is also the problem of transportation and education as it is located 25-30 Kms far from Lohardaga. When making an assessment of the village they noticed that the palm leave ‘chatai’ made by the women was very fine and so they came up with the idea of making durries. At first they had to go door to door to convince them to join the project. The maximum attendance they have had is 39 but there are 25 weavers active now. By making the women participate they wanted to empower women.
When they started they introduced the women to Origami paper craft to help them ignite some interest in craft, they even added drawing to the mix to broaden their mind to the variety and possibility of craft. Gradually moving to weaving, they had to be patient while introducing it to the women as there was irregularity in the attendance of the women participating. Lessons of colours were also given to them, like the colour wheel and mixing colours. For this activity coloured paper pieces of different shades were used to help them cultivate their interest. There are three types of weave- Plain weave, Twill weave and Matt weave. The women were taught paper weaving at first, where they discovered that illiteracy was a problem. Soon they made new designs on their own as they had been very excited to learn and make new things. The wooden frame was designed to help them learn weaving. Soon handloom machines and raw materials were brought from Panipat, the women felt it was easy working on machines, but they had trouble with the consistency of the design at first. Till now 12 machines have been procured and the width and length can be adjusted. These women have worked only for 8-9 months but now their work is of an export quality. The first durrie had a design of stripes, gradually the women understood their mistakes and shortcomings and worked on them, like the problems in techniques of combing, posture and they were usually unaware of the direction of the cloth. With the introduction of 6 pedals new designs are being created. The check design durrie was an experiment, other popular market designs were also tried out. Still there is the problem of pace and distributing work for household chores which the women face. Rupal Indigenous is the brand, where all the products made from Peshrar cluster are being sold. Mostly the designs are sold to European markets.
About the Speaker
Akashdeep Khalkho
Textile designer & Entrepreneur
Peshrar Durrie Handloom SHG
Lohardaga, Jharkhand
Akashdeep is a textile designer and entrepreneur who manages the Peshrar Durrie Handloom Self Help Group in Lohardaga, Jharkhand. Akashdeep’s journey is craft based and he has worked with clusters in crafts, especially weaving. He likes to explore the socio-economic condition of any place and how craft has been sustained.
