Bhubaneswar: Shraddha, an NGO is striving to save the traditional Orissan art of handloom weaving.
Odisha was once known as Utkal because of the excellence it has achieved in many arts including weaving, particularly tie-and-dye weaving. But young weavers whose forefathers had preserved this art, are slowly turning away from it as they are struggling to make a living out of it.
To address this issue, ‘Shraddha’, is trying to help out the weavers. Led by Sanjay Kumar Panda, former Union Textile Secretary, the organisation particularly focuses on women weavers and helps them improve their earnings. Shradddha also makes efforts to ensure that consumers get high-quality fabrics/saris at a fair price.
In order to turn its vision into reality the organisation has set a series of goals for itself, which include honing skills of Odia weavers, encouraging greater participation of women weavers in order to empower them economically and help them lead dignified lives. This, the organisation believes, will lead to empowerment of our state.
Quality and customer satisfaction are also key concerns for the organisation. It tries to foster creativity among weavers in order to come up with new designs. The belief at the core of this is that new designs will attract customers. But that isn’t the only objective; customers should also feel proud of their tradition and their identity as Odias, when they use handloom products. In this regard, a one and a half month skill development campaign for twenty women weavers was organized by Shraddha Institute with the help of Life Insurance Corporation of India in Odisho village of Jagatsinghpur district.
On the valedictory ceremony of this innovative project, Presidentof the organisation, Dr Sanjay Kumar Panda emphasized meeting customer demands, high quality product manufacturing, affordable prices and direct customer contact. He added that these women weavers will one day become a source of inspiration for others.
Ms. Murmu, Deputy Director of Textiles, Cuttack, hoped for a new opportunity after seeing marked change in quality in the pre- and post-training products.
LIC Senior DM Ashwini Kumar, Marketing Officer Krishna Prasad Mishra and Branch Manager Damodar Raut were impressed after testing the pre- and post-training products of the women weavers and lauded the efforts of Shraddha and the determination of the weavers. Ashwani Kumar presented certificates to the women weavers who participated in the training.
Dr. Sudarshan Behera urged upon the weavers to feel proud by participating in this process. Vice President Surendra Kumar Patra presided over the inaugural function while Dr. Subhranshu Bhushan Roy, Major General Atanu Patnaik, Kshirod Kumar Mahapatra, Padmanava Panda were present on the occasion. The trainer masters Patra and Batakrushna were felicitated.
