Pashmina shawl makers struggle to make their ends meet

Rifat Mohidin

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Srinagar, November 9

The Rs 80,000-crore development package by the Prime Minister also includes Rs 50 crore for the promotion of pashmina project in Kashmir, but the artisans – the real makers of the marvelous craft – are facing a setback due to government negligence.

Pashmina shawls have a “grim reality associated with them” as the hands that weave these shawls live in extreme poverty.

“The market is totally down this year. Artisans are on the verge of begging as the government is not doing anything to help the poor people who actually make these shawls,” said president of the Artisans Union, Abdul Ahad Wani from Arth village in Narbal.

The development package announced by the Prime Minister in Kashmir recently includes Rs 50 crore for the promotion of pashimna in Kashmir but the artisans who weave the shawls had been ignored by the successive regimes. They had not received any official help so far.

In Kashmir, thousands of people get their livelihood by making pashmina shawls, scarves, stoles, but the rampant production of fake pashmina outside the state, involvement of middlemen and other factors are making the sustenance of weavers difficult.

“Our business has been affected due to fake pashmina coming in from Punjab. Earlier, thousands of girls and women were involved in spinning the wheel and making the pashmina yarn, but now there is no demand for it as fake raw material from outside has replaced it,” said Wani.

The worst setback of decades for the shawl weavers has been the floods that hit Kashmir in September last year as more than 10,000 artisans were affected.

“The floods decreased the rates and set a huge setback to the artisans, some of whom lost their raw material, their farms and their houses. Many are switching to other jobs,” Wani said. In his home town, Budgam, most of the families depend on shawl weaving for their livelihood.

The villages in Budgam are famous for designing and weaving expensive Kashmiri shawls. In almost every family at least two-three members are engaged in making Kashmiri pashmina, kani and other shawls, but the artisans said they were getting peanuts for their hard labour.

“We earn just Rs 50-60 a day. Even earning that has turned difficult now,” said an artisan from Narbal.

Moreover, the artisans, mostly illiterate, do not know about the insurance facilities available for their shawls.

“The government should start giving subsidy to the poor artisans so that they have some security. They have bank accounts that are registered with the government. The government can deposit the amount in their account so that they are can start doing better with their skills,” said Wani.

Studies reveal hand-woven shawls are struggling to survive in Kashmir due to the “negligence of the government” towards preserving it and the availability of counterfeit shawls in the market imported from various other states.

Picture of neglect

The development package announced by the Prime Minister in Kashmir on Saturday includes Rs 50 crore for the promotion of pashimna in Kashmir, but the artisans who weave the shawls had been ignored by the successive regimes. They have not received any official help so far.