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CHALLENGE
Union Council (UC) Hassanpur Tiwana, District Khushab is situated near the bank of Jhelum River, with a total popu-lation 26,727. UC Tiwana is famour for products weaved on manual handloom (khadi); there are approximately 200 families engaged in this traditional Khadi work since 3-4 generations. The most popular products are Woolen Shawls for both men and women known as Salara in local language and Lachaa which is used traditionally in wedding ceremo-nies. Shawls and Lachaa made by these people are sold throughout the country because of its fine quality. Sargodha, Faisalabad and Lahore are big wholesale markets of these products. Although other shawls are also sold in these mar-kets but the shawls made by these families have a market niche as they are hand woven. These people enjoy a compet-itive edge as none of the other artisans are preparing these products on manual handlooms. Buyers normally appreci-ate and value the work being done manually vis-à-vis machine looms.
These families are solely dependent upon income generated through weaving cloth and are only attached with this profession. However, for financial returns on their hard work, these families are predominantly dependent upon the middle man “contractor” who supplies these families with yarn (the raw material for weaving the handloom products). These artisans are often exploited by the contractor who pays them very less as compared to the market rates. Re-sultantly, the families are left with no other option but to leave the profession and look for seasonal labor work near-by or in factories in adjacent cities. Due to the same exploitation practice, many manual looms have been closed.
Reviving manual handloom cloth manufacturing
INITIATIVE
In line with the wretchedness of weaver families and to keep the skills intact Local Support Or-ganization SMJH approached USAID’s Small Grants & Ambas-sador’s Fund for assistance. A grant worth USD 64,656 was awarded under U.S Ambassador’s Fund Program from June 2012 to October 2012 to revive manual handloom cloth manufacturing through provision of raw material and handlooms to 123 families in 3 villages of UC Has-sanpur Tiwana, District Khushab.
RESULT
Each of 123 families received two bags of yarn each containing 45 kilograms and handlooms. There weaving families were linked with reliable and competent vendors in Lahore, Sargodha and Multan for collective marketing of shawls towards transformation of being independent from the contractor. 6 two days field based training events were also conducted to encompass booking keeping, aesthetics and developing backward and forward market linkages.
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