: 6 Women Help Award-Winning Weavers Across India earn Rs 60 lakh in 2 Months #IndiaNEWS #Heritage Preservation Majid Ahmad Mir, a 39-year-old master weaver from Srinagar comes from a lineage of master

6 Women Help Award-Winning Weavers Across India earn Rs 60 lakh in 2 Months #IndiaNEWS #Heritage Preservation
Majid Ahmad Mir, a 39-year-old master weaver from Srinagar comes from a lineage of master pashmina weavers dating back almost 600 years. (Image above of Majid Ahmad Mir on the left and a Pochampally Sari on the right)
“Our specialisations include the Kani shawl (which carry aesthetic recreations of designs inspired by nature using a very fine twill tapestry technique), Plain pashmina shawl and reversible Pashmina shawl,??? says Majid, in a conversation with The Better India.
“Ive won multiple awards in Pashmina weaving like the National Award alongside my brother Altaf in 2010 and multiple State-level prizes. My other brother Fayaz also won the National Award and was felicitated many times for his work. I have been invited to teach Pashmina weaving and its history at various workshops across India and abroad,??? he adds.
Despite their rich heritage, tradition and recognition at multiple levels, the Mir family were devastated financially when the pandemic struck in March 2020.
From March 2020 till May 2021, their sales came down by 95%. The very few who bought their shawls did so on humanitarian grounds, claims Majid. On top of all that, the Mir family racked up a significant amount of debt because they had to continue paying people supplying materials and other weavers, who were dependent on them.
On 13 May 2021 (Eid), however, Majid got in touch with the Weaver Resource Bridge, a volunteer group of six women from different parts of the world helping master weavers across India find buyers for their products.
The Weaver Resource Bridge comprises Talish Ray (a Delhi-based corporate lawyer) Meenakshi Vashisht (heritage specialist), Mani Tripathi (homemaker from Lucknow), Namrata Varma Kaul (real estate professional), Shruti Mathur (IT consultant living in Melbourne) and Monika Srivastav (based out of Bahrain).
“Thanks to Talish Ma’am and the Weaver Resource Bridge, weve been able to establish contact with buyers, who have placed orders and relieved some of the financial distress we are facing. I cannot express in words how much they’ve helped us in these times. Besides generating sales amounting to approximately Rs 3 lakh, we have been able to pay off more than a third of our debt and still employ about 35 to 40 people in our factories, some of whom have been with us since our grandfathers generation. Its not just our family, but about 50 families who have received financial relief as a result of their work,??? claims Majid.
Similarly 45-year-old Gopal Chippa, a master weaver engaged with the delightful craft of Bagru printing (a traditional printing technique done using natural colours by members of the Chippa community in Rajasthan), also found solace through the Weaver Resource Bridge.

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