CORPORITUAL FOR MASTER WEAVERS IN UPPADA VILLAGE
Uppada Village is located on the sea shore on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh. The main livelihood sources are from fishing and weaving and the population in the villages is dominantly fishermen and next is weavers. Soulbath Peace Foundation TEAM visited Mr.Devam Gangadharam who is the President of Uppada Handloom Cooperative Society in the present generation even the children of fishermen are showing interest to learn weaving and are joining the work irrespective of their caste differentiation. Jamdhani print which weaves the most costliest variety of Uppada weaves was hidden till late 90’s where the master weaver was hidden by the rich and the prominent people in the society and the villagers were given an amount as less as 500 INR per day even till recently to weave sarees worth one lakh for them. This way the beauty of the Uppada weaves did not come in to limelight to the normal section of society even till recent days. The art was used only to show up the riches of the rich and when the word spread and people from near and far started coming to enquire about the sarees to the villages was when the villagers became conscious of their skill and started to realize their potential. This led to a revolution where they formed Cooperative societies and got the patent rights. Even now there are some duplicate sarees being woven in other states like Kerala by some men who know the art but these sarees can be easily distinguished from the handwoven ones as the Uppada sarees are known for their similarity on both sides of the saree.
The thread used for the sarees is bought from Karnataka , which is then dyed and spread in the sun for drying. It is then used to weave. The gold is used as threads to weave and it is a beautiful experience to see the process of weaving. It needs lots of patience, art , skill, eye to detail and creativity to spread the threads according to the colors and start weaving with interwoven golden threads which are made a small bundles which itself needs a skill and is done only by the master weaver. Now they say that they are able to manage their livelihood, they are very happy as Uppada is known to many but the main issue is the increase in the duplicates getting more into the society and the adaptability they need to do as the customer needs change.
Their life is colorful yet monotonous if one does not enjoy the work. The skill of weaving needs to pass on in the generations. The children from this community are not good in education is what was told by the President , the ratio would be 1: 500 who studies beyond X Grade. The parents are also scared because they feel the child would neither land in the education nor in their profession so they don’t encourage the kids to study. They normally go to the Govt .Schools and if any child is extraordinarily great then they go to Kakinada a nearby Town for further education. The family burden on the parents is high with approximately six children in a family and if they don’t weave they can’t live so the focus is not paid much on the children. Their prime focus is to bring the kids in to their caste baseds profession and make them self sustainable.
Now the scenario has changed when the people are more intending towards making the profession live and are teaching it to kids beyond caste thus employing the teenagers, paying them and also teaching them. When bought directly from the weavers if the price of the saree is 17,000/- it sells at a price of 50000/- in the market , thus making the business men rich .But the weavers are happy to share these profits with the middle men as they are the link between them and the world unknown to them. But the loss is at the customers end where we are paying three different levels of people.
Promotion of crafts was what was recommended by them to keep the art alive.
CORPORITUAL VALUES OF LIVING WORKSHOP
In the context of helping the weavers understand the importance of their skills and abilities in weaving and how it will help them grow their work the CORPORitual Values of Living were introduced to five weavers which included one master weaver and four young adults who were learning to weave, out of the four three of them belonged to fishermen community and one from scheduled tribes, none of the children learning or weaving are from the weaving community. Mr.Gangadharam speaks CORPORitual as he says these children have the skill and the ability , curiosity to learn and take the work forward so I took them beyond the caste system. Here the CORPORitual Value II “Manifest your purpose of Existence “was introduced. It was a very interactive workshop as the participants told that they were happy with the work and would take it forward.
The importance of silence and how it helps us focus on the work was explained to them introducing them to the first CVOL “Meet yourself in Silence”. The importance of being compassionate to the work , compassionate to others and help everyone grow in the context was discussed. It was very touching to see how the master Weaver felt very acknowledged at what he was doing because till then he says he was under tremendous pressure for employing these children and teaching them. He shared that he was happy to know what he was doing was noble and thanked Soulbath Foundation. This was followed by introducing them to the CVOL IV – “Forgive and bury the Past “and how it helps us cross over major burdens was discussed.
The need to be grateful in the context of the work was discussed and then the workshop was conclude with a note of gratitude to Sri Raj Bhowmik.
Testimonials:
Many people come and go but only few leave an impact, few make us feel that the work we are doing is good, out of them are you. Thanks a lot for coming to ask about us and know us, please keep in touch and hope we establish a long term relationship. Thank you Soulbath Peace Foundation .
Mr.Devam Gangadharam, President, Uppada Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society.
Very beautiful experience as I could see the life of a community, how we reached the right person to know their complete life is just a miracle beyond words. Thanks to Raj Bhowmik Back To Society DREAM platform , Sri Raj Bhowmik and the SPF TEAM for continuous efforts , every step behind this effort is guided , planned and encouraged. Thank you - Vijaya
It was nice to see the life of weavers, they are sustainable in their place if we can give and share our responsibility from our side. We can make arts more sustainable by supporting them. Thank you SPF for this wonderful opportunity, learnt a lot.
Thank you – Vudaiy.
The thread used for the sarees is bought from Karnataka , which is then dyed and spread in the sun for drying. It is then used to weave. The gold is used as threads to weave and it is a beautiful experience to see the process of weaving. It needs lots of patience, art , skill, eye to detail and creativity to spread the threads according to the colors and start weaving with interwoven golden threads which are made a small bundles which itself needs a skill and is done only by the master weaver. Now they say that they are able to manage their livelihood, they are very happy as Uppada is known to many but the main issue is the increase in the duplicates getting more into the society and the adaptability they need to do as the customer needs change.
Their life is colorful yet monotonous if one does not enjoy the work. The skill of weaving needs to pass on in the generations. The children from this community are not good in education is what was told by the President , the ratio would be 1: 500 who studies beyond X Grade. The parents are also scared because they feel the child would neither land in the education nor in their profession so they don’t encourage the kids to study. They normally go to the Govt .Schools and if any child is extraordinarily great then they go to Kakinada a nearby Town for further education. The family burden on the parents is high with approximately six children in a family and if they don’t weave they can’t live so the focus is not paid much on the children. Their prime focus is to bring the kids in to their caste baseds profession and make them self sustainable.
Now the scenario has changed when the people are more intending towards making the profession live and are teaching it to kids beyond caste thus employing the teenagers, paying them and also teaching them. When bought directly from the weavers if the price of the saree is 17,000/- it sells at a price of 50000/- in the market , thus making the business men rich .But the weavers are happy to share these profits with the middle men as they are the link between them and the world unknown to them. But the loss is at the customers end where we are paying three different levels of people.
Promotion of crafts was what was recommended by them to keep the art alive.
CORPORITUAL VALUES OF LIVING WORKSHOP
In the context of helping the weavers understand the importance of their skills and abilities in weaving and how it will help them grow their work the CORPORitual Values of Living were introduced to five weavers which included one master weaver and four young adults who were learning to weave, out of the four three of them belonged to fishermen community and one from scheduled tribes, none of the children learning or weaving are from the weaving community. Mr.Gangadharam speaks CORPORitual as he says these children have the skill and the ability , curiosity to learn and take the work forward so I took them beyond the caste system. Here the CORPORitual Value II “Manifest your purpose of Existence “was introduced. It was a very interactive workshop as the participants told that they were happy with the work and would take it forward.
The importance of silence and how it helps us focus on the work was explained to them introducing them to the first CVOL “Meet yourself in Silence”. The importance of being compassionate to the work , compassionate to others and help everyone grow in the context was discussed. It was very touching to see how the master Weaver felt very acknowledged at what he was doing because till then he says he was under tremendous pressure for employing these children and teaching them. He shared that he was happy to know what he was doing was noble and thanked Soulbath Foundation. This was followed by introducing them to the CVOL IV – “Forgive and bury the Past “and how it helps us cross over major burdens was discussed.
The need to be grateful in the context of the work was discussed and then the workshop was conclude with a note of gratitude to Sri Raj Bhowmik.
Testimonials:
Many people come and go but only few leave an impact, few make us feel that the work we are doing is good, out of them are you. Thanks a lot for coming to ask about us and know us, please keep in touch and hope we establish a long term relationship. Thank you Soulbath Peace Foundation .
Mr.Devam Gangadharam, President, Uppada Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society.
Very beautiful experience as I could see the life of a community, how we reached the right person to know their complete life is just a miracle beyond words. Thanks to Raj Bhowmik Back To Society DREAM platform , Sri Raj Bhowmik and the SPF TEAM for continuous efforts , every step behind this effort is guided , planned and encouraged. Thank you - Vijaya
It was nice to see the life of weavers, they are sustainable in their place if we can give and share our responsibility from our side. We can make arts more sustainable by supporting them. Thank you SPF for this wonderful opportunity, learnt a lot.
Thank you – Vudaiy.