Banarasi sari weavers take a hit after serial blasts

‘‘I’m not the only one who’s unable to earn enough to even give his family a square meal,’’ Akhtar says. ‘‘There must be at least 60,000 other weavers who have been pushed into poverty because of the blasts. We hate terrorists and rioters—we’re always the ones who take the worst hit.’’

After the blasts, Varanasi’s sari market went into lock-down for a week, says Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, convener of the People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, an organisation which has earned respect among the weavers because of the help it has provided in price negotiation for small weavers. “The Banarasi sari market has gone down by 30 per cent after the bomb blast,’’ Raghuvanshi says. ‘‘Buyers from other parts of the country have stopped coming here and even local traders, the gaddidars have stopped making payments—they are using the opportunity to exploit the weavers and give them only half the normal rate.’’

According to a BDAM study, there were seven lakh weavers in Varanasi in the early 1970s. The communal riots of 1978-79 left a large number of them starving, Hassan says; many quit the city, opting for other professions.

‘‘Then, in 1989, an influx of about 40,000 weavers arrived from Bhagalpur, fleeing the riots there,’’ says Hassan. ‘‘They brought the powerloom with them, which badly affected the handloom industry. Thousands of weavers fled once again to Surat and Mumbai in search of at least a basic livelihood.’’

In Hassan’s estimate, over the last 40 years, about three lakh weavers have abandoned the trade and switched to other professions. Another two lakh have left the city following riots and their subsequent adverse effect; only two lakh still live in Varanasi, ‘‘trying to survive in the given situation’’, Hassan says.

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