Bhubaneswar : Dr. Sanjay Kumar Panda, former union textile secretary and founder of Shraddha, while presiding presided over the AGM said that the main objectives of the society to empower the handloom weavers for increasing their earnings substantially, which will increase their socio-economic conditions and attract the younger generations to continue in the traditional profession. He mentioned that a two-prong strategy for (i) producing quality fabrics with new design, new colour and new products and (ii) selling the products directly to the consumers either in fairs or online is being pursued for achieving the objectives.
Surendra Kumar Patra, vice president explained technical aspects of upgrading the skill of the weavers, who are all first-generation weavers. He showed the samples of the Kargil pattern cotton sarees woven by them prior to the interventions of Shraddha and the sarees and dress materials woven with better quality and new designs by the same weavers, after the training and counselling. This change has led to increase in their daily wage from Rs 300 to about Rs 450. It has generated new hope among the weavers, who have expressed desire to improve the quality of fabrics further.
Participating in the discussion Syama Charan Padhy and Navin Agarwal suggested for exploring funding under CSR for empowering the weavers. Rashmi Mohapatra, social worker appreciated efforts of Shraddha and suggested that women weavers’ self-help groups may be supported with technical training for better production.
Kshirod Mahapatra, Bansidhar Mohapatra, Raja Parija, Dharanidhar Nath, Ashok sahoo, Gurudas Bramha, B Bramha, Padmanava Panda, Rosalin Behera. Suvendu Tripathi and others participated in the discussion with their valuable suggestions.
Retired justice Anang Patnaik participated on the digital platform from Delhi and referred to the recent initiative of the State government for showcasing handloom fabrics of Odisha at Bhubaneswar international airport. While appreciating this, he and stressed on replicating it at other airports within and outside Odisha. N M Prusty referred to the eye testing of 2,000 weavers done by the society in collaboration with Vision Spring Foundation and suggested for taking it forward in Subarnapur and other district. Sashiprava Bindhani, Sangeeta Mohapatra, Subhendra Mishra, Dr Pratima Ray among others participated in the zoom meeting and gave their valuable suggestions.
Jagadanand and concerned officers of CYSD were thanked for making the infrastructure of CYSD available for holding the meeting. Suvra Shivani Mohapatra, treasurer gave the vote of thanks to all the distinguished members and invited guests for joining the meeting and giving their valuable suggestions.
Members having varied experience in handloom and textile sector were present in the meeting and gave their valued suggestions. During the discussion, it was emphasised on quality production and institutional marketing so that there will be no middle man commission and the weavers will get more money in their hands. Also, there was some proposal to brand the products in the name of Shraddha and sale it through web portal in order to attract more customers.
