What are Solapur Silk Sarees Weavers Dealing with and Demanding?

“Yes, I do have the ID, but it has not helped with any financial assistance as of yet,” says 52-year-old Shrinivas Mone, a weaver from Solapur. He is referring to the ID, which is required as a criterion to avail the schemes under the National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP), such as the MUDRA loan.

The major cause for not being able to avail of the help is not just the inefficient framework governing this assistance, but also the fact that local weavers and artisans are not often informed of the right ways of accessing the benefits. “How would I know where to go for this,” Mone further says.

Solapur, which is popular for its handloom industry, has a rich but now dwindling community popular for ‘Solapur silk sarees’. The weavers for making these sarees have been demanding the inclusion of the ‘Solapursilk sarees’ to be part of the traditional textiles in the Maharashtra government’s textile policy of 2023.

The business of the Solapur silk sarees

“If a saree is handwoven in Rs. 11,000, I can make Rs. 1,000  out of it,” says the third-generation weaver from his family, who has been in the business for three decades now. Meanwhile, his son dyes the sarees; there are no other family members involved in the business, making it further difficult for him, about which he says, “What to do with the condition!” showing resentment towards the livelihood.

The company sources silk from Bengaluru and zari from Surat, and sells these sarees not only to retailers but also directly to customers. However, it is not just Solapur where he can make his livelihood; he also travels to other places, such as Kolhapur, Mumbai, and Sangli, with a particular focus on Pune, where he considers the sales to be good. 

As a matter of fact, Pune has the largest market for these sarees, and weavers from Solapur supply the market of Laxmi Road and other local stores. 

However, there remains a potential for fewer sales during the off-season. “Festive season is good for us,” Mone states.

Reportedly, there are at least 350-odd families that weave silk sarees and are part of the Solapur handloom industry, which is also known for its textile industry, producing terry towels and chaddars.

The sarees that are woven by this community use silk and Zari, also the material used in paithani sarees, and the process is also similar, for which the community wants these sarees to be included in ‘Paithani sarees’ in the traditional textile list.

One of the retailers where Mone sells the sarees is the 1999-established store Lahoti Sarees, which only purchases sarees directly from the weavers. However, as the second-generation owner, Yogesh Lahoti says, “There might only be 4-5 artisans who are making handloom sarees that are authentic, else, semi-handloom sarees or machine-made sarees have taken the landscape.”

According to Lahoti, there might only be 130-140 old artisans working within the handloom weaving culture. “(And) there is a reason for the diminishing number since the labour cost, yarn, and the entire cost of making a saree is very high,” the 33-year-old says adding that the cost also goes for the machine maintenance for the semi-handloom artisans making the entire weaving sarees and its business, a costly affair for the weavers and customers. 

On the contrary, Lahoti shares that for the Solapur sarees that might have cost the weavers Rs 7000, retailers like him buy them for Rs 9,000. Sometimes, the cost of the Solapur-made sarees is too high even for the wholesalers and retailers based in the same city, so they have to buy from outside, like Bengaluru.

Community looking for avenues

To be able to meet the challenges, the Solapur weaving community has been looking forward to the inclusion in the textile policy of 2023. The inclusion would mean the benefits of the old age pension scheme, along with obtaining jobs in the government-run handloom institutes. 

The scheme also has the provision for the yearly festival allowance that goes up to Rs 15000 for female weavers and Rs 10,000 for male weavers.

Currently, the traditional textile list includes khan fabric from South Maharashtra, Himru and Paithani saree from Ahilyanagar, Karvat Kathi saree from Vidharbha, and Ghongdi from Western Maharashtra. However, reportedly, the community believes that the products like Himru, which are hardly even woven in the state, are also reserved, and “the grant is being misused”.

“Mysore silk sarees are registered under the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, specifically as 'Mysore Silk' and hence, it could be protected and get the support it requires,” Lahoti says, adding that such a recognition is required for the Solapur silk sarees as well.

The community has also been demanding a “yarn bank” which receives a 15% subsidy from the Central Government on yarn under the Raw Material Supply Scheme (RMSS) on silk and blended yarn of natural fibres. Currently, the benefits of the subsidy are taken by the middlemen, and the agents benefit from the subsidy.

The cultural context

Talking to Local Samosa, Lahoti sheds light upon the history of the community that is hardly known. “The great Shivaji Maharaj’s courtesans would take the Solapur looms for the kingdom, and later, a big group of artisans and weavers shifted to South India, mainly in Karnataka, in search of opportunities,” he says, adding that Coimbatore has weavers working for almost 5-6 generations.

Reports also suggest that many artisans belong to the Kuruhinashetty community and also migrated from the neighbouring State of Karnataka, while a few families from the Padmashali community migrated from Telangana here.  

For this community, relying on the upcoming generations does not seem like a viable option, as the youth from the community are reluctant to continue the art due to various financial constraints in the face of competition. “I still keep teaching the skills and techniques to the workers or the new-generation people who seem interested,’’ says Shrinivas Mone.