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Yarn of hope

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Team dreams R. Jaya with Co-optex employees at the New Delhi exhibition

Now celebrating its platinum jubilee year, Co-optex, the Tamil Nadu Government’s handloom wing, is a beautiful story of a nation-building organisation, says R. Jaya, its managing director. “The idea behind setting up Co-optex was to give the State weavers’ cooperatives a platform to sell their products,” explains the Chennai-based bureaucrat about the movement initiated in 1935. Though the first weavers’ cooperative society was formed in the State in 1904, there was no organised window for product sales before Co-optex.

In its first year, the ground-breaking idea fetched sales worth Rs.54,000. In New Delhi to oversee Co-optex’s ongoing summer cotton exhibition at Tamil Nadu House on Kautilya Marg, the MD points out, “Those days it was a huge sum.” Though sales were good in the 1950s and ’60s, Co-optex became the preference of the elite only in the ’70s, she says. In the ’90s, power looms posed stiff competition to the handloom sector, leading to a fall in Co-optex’s sales. But today, the juggernaut, with about six lakh people involved, is ready to take on changing times. Introduction of new designs every year and revival of the old ones have become its winning mantra, a glimpse of which is available at the 11-day exhibition ending May 3.

“We are aiming at keeping up with the market needs. We have a research wing to find out customer preferences. Besides tie-ups with the National Institute of Fashion Technology, National Institute of Design, etc., we have 13 in-house designers,” she states.

But it’s no cakewalk. “Most of our weavers are above 40 and it is not easy to introduce them to things other than what they have been doing.” Also, many designs require loom adjustment. “It takes them months to ready the looms for certain designs.” Reviving a dying tradition is equally tough. “Some saris with old motifs take days to be ready. At times, it becomes difficult to convince the weavers to produce just one sari in 45 days. In such cases, besides our regular insurance cover, we give them special incentives besides what is given by their cooperative societies,” she explains. Some restored designs are available at the exhibition here, such as the elegant Chettinad cotton saris.

About two years ago, Co-optex created a record of sorts by launching a silk sari range, Mayil Thogai which contains over 1.5 lakh colours. Worth Rs.40,000 a piece, about 25 saris have sold so far, she says. Another singular venture is the Semozhi collection with Tamil letters as motifs. There is a plan to weave saris with other regional alphabets too.

Co-optex’s 75-year journey is on the ascendant, but Jaya sums up with a significant thought. “With increased awareness about the preciousness of our handloom craft, the customer base has increased manifold. But present times have also seen the number of traditional weavers going down, with their youngsters opting for other professions. It is time to take weaving out of the hereditary mould and set up institutes for people from different walks of life to learn the skills.”

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