Indian sari weavers fight for survival

In the historic city of Varanasi, on the banks of the River Ganges in India, a tiny community of craftspeople weaves silk saris using wooden handlooms. These saris are lovingly worn and preserved by their fortunate owners.

But this beautiful craft's now threatened by cost-efficient alternatives produced in factories, and by cheap imports.

Mohammad Sirajuddin, whose family have been handweavers for generations, fears that his skills are likely to disappear with him.

Mohammad Sirajuddin: "Our production of handloom Banarasi saris has come down significantly. If you walk around this whole neighbourhood and look, you'll see that this is the only house with a handloom unit. Even this will be here only as long as I am alive. After that, nobody in this house will continue hand weaving."

The saris are remarkable for their intricate detail. A single sari can fetch at least $400, but the weavers themselves are left with very little, once production costs and agents' fees are taken into account.

Jaya Jaitly describes the art of weaving in her book "Woven Textiles of Varanasi". She firmly believes that these specialised, traditional weavers need government protection.

Jaya Jaitly: "But I do still believe very strongly that the handloom must be supported because we have the largest number of varieties of handloom, techniques, skills and people employed more than anywhere else in the world. And I think that's truly a tradition to be proud of. No other country in the world can claim the variety of handmade textiles that India has."

India's textile industry has had to compete on an international level for centuries. In the 1700s, England's industrial era poured cheap fabrics into India and then in the 1990s, sewing yarn and low-priced fabric from China began to dominate the market.

Yet, as Jaitly passionately argues, the industrialised process lacks something vital by comparison.

Jaya Jaitly: "So all of these were thriving industries. It got killed through mechanisation and even more so through Chinese competition and their push and their ability to produce huge quantities at very low prices. Now the economics works but the humanity doesn't work, the culture doesn't work, livelihoods don't work." View Less