Benaras, or Varanasi, the very name of this holy city in the Uttar Pradesh, India, reminds one of the rich heritage of the place where Shiva, a Hindu god once lost his earring, where the Buddha began his preachings, and where winding narrow lanes unveil the mysteries of creation. One such mystery of Benaras is the ‘Paan’ (betel leaf) which melts in the mouth and needn’t be chewed and another is the Benarsi saree, an exquisite weave on silk with ornate designs.

‘Ram Jatan is a master of this art of weaving magic on silk that has prevailed in the region for more than 500 years. Weaving such exquisite silks gained prominence during the Mughal era when emperors patronized this art and made it popular throughout the nation. This boom that the Benarsi sarees enjoyed continued for a very long time. No Indian wedding would be complete without this drape even half a century ago. But this craze has changed with time. Present-day brides find the Benarsi saree were heavy and difficult to don. They prefer alternatives that are much lighter and, thus, easier to drape.
Ram Jatan is unaware of this change in consumer behaviour but feels its vibes because he doesn’t get as many orders as he used to. He receives his payments late and has been forced to begin cultivating vegetables in a small piece of land that he owns in order to ensure a secured livelihood. He has also formed a group which helps him save money and fetches him credit. Hence, Ram Jatan realizes that he is among the fortunate ones. Thousands of weavers like him are facing the same crisis and are gradually shifting to other professions that they had once regarded as petty.

Such a crisis has risen, according to Ram Jatan, since the advent of power looms in Benaras. Lighter alternatives are either being woven in the power looms or are being woven using the cheaper and lighter Chinese silk as opposed to the traditional mulberry silk of Bangalore. Customers being the kings, the intermediaries who purchase the traditional hand-woven sarees from the weavers have reduced their scale of business. Thus, the handloom weavers receive much lesser orders than before from the intermediaries and are paid a lower price for their craftsmanship. It is not as if they were not exploited when the original Benarsi sarees were in demand in the market; they always were the weaker lot. But they never complained before, because they received orders from the intermediaries throughout the year and earned enough to not only run their family but also to encourage their next generation to pursue this art. But gone are those days, laments Ram Jatan.

 
Thousands of weavers of Benarsi sarees wake up every morning with the hope that the demand for their art will rise once again. Five years have passed on this hope but things have not changed.

This ray of hope would have died for Ram Jatan had he not associated himself with the Human Welfare Association (HWA), a civil society organization working hard to relieve a few hundred weavers from a miserable plight. In this endeavour, HWA has created an institutional platform for the weavers which, over a period of time, is expected to prevent them from being exploited by the intermediaries. This institutional platform is a federation of Self Help Groups called the Benaras Bunkar Samiti.

Ram Jatan is proud to be a member of his SHG and also of the Benaras Bunkar Samiti (BBS). The SHG and the BBS provide assistance to weavers like Ram Jatan at different levels to help them overcome different problems. The SHG not only promotes thrift among the weavers but also makes credit available to them to buy the silk thread for weaving. This saves the weavers from the clutches of money-lenders who are none other than the traders/intermediaries themselves. This also increases their bargaining power against the traders. Had the SHG not been there, Ram Jatan, like other poor weavers, would approach the intermediary traders to supply him with silk threads and then promise to hand over the saree to him at a lower than the appropriate labour cost.

Now, being a member of a community based organization (CBO), Ram Jatan is able to overcome the initial hindrance faced by weavers as also several other problems related to design development and marketing. BBS acts as a facilitator for all the SHGs under it. It uses its corpus fund to get the designs made first on graph paper and then on perforated sheets by specialized people meant for each task.

Once the design is chalked out the weavers, who are members of the SHGs under BBS, take over the responsibility of weaving the design into a beautiful saree. The saree, once ready, is handed over to the BBS who then ensures the polishing of the same and selling it into the market.

Following such institutional systems, BBS has been providing some respite to the weavers. With BBS, they not only receive the right price for their craftsmanship but also get paid immediately. This is a luxury enjoyed by weavers of BBS as against those working for the intermediaries.

The intermediaries usually do not pay off the weavers immediately but after almost 6 months and even then they hand over a post-dated cheque. The weaver who needs the money immediately is then forced to discount the cheque from money-lenders who also happens to be a close associate of the intermediary. Exploitation of this nature is, however, not new but it was acceptable to the weavers when they had work round the year. But now, with lesser orders, such exploitation is becoming extremely burdensome.

As mentioned earlier, with the Benarsi saree woven in the power loom becoming popular, the stress on the weavers has increased. BBS, in its aims to relieve the weavers from this stress, also faces a difficult challenge. Realizing the fact that marketing hand-woven sarees has reached new heights, BBS has begun encouraging its weavers to diversify their production. Hence, a new range of products like cushion covers, quilt covers, bed covers, stoles, belts, bags, letter holders, tablecloths, etc., are also being made. Despite this, the necessity to handhold BBS, especially in marketing, was urgently felt.