Sonepur
Orissa
Sonepur is located in the western part of Orissa. Sonepur hand loom
woven sarees and dress material are known for their unique "Bomkai"
designs locally known as "Bandha" design. This Bomkai design on the
fabric (especially on Sarees) is developed by using Jala technique on handloom.
The art of weaving has been existing in this part of Orissa since 600 B.C. The
scriptures in the caves of Khandagiri reveal this. By late 1980s, this hand
loom cluster had begun specializing in silk weaving especially the Bomkai
design (locally known as Bandha Design) without using any extra shedding
mechanism like Jacquard and Dobby. The Bomkai design both the warp and weft is
dyed according to the requirement. For border design, warp alone is processed,
while for Palavas and anchal of sarees, weft is processed and overall saree
designs, both the warp and weft are processed.
Products
Sonepur cluster have specialty in tie & dye and Bomkai design in sari. The
other products of this cluster are plain cotton sari, plain silk sari with
bandha design and ladies dress material.
Marketing
Master Weaver and mahajan / sahukars are the major actor of
the cluster in marketing the products. Weavers are working as job worker under
master weaver or Mahajans / Sahukars. They procure raw material to weavers and
after conversion of raw material into product; the weavers got their wages at
the same day or on monthly basis. But these weavers have less bargaining power
regarding their wages.
There are also independent weavers operational in the cluster. As their
economic condition is not well so, once the finished product of a sari is
ready, it must find a buyers. Due to weak economic condition they need return
immediately. They can not wait for the sale of products for a longtime. In fact
the frequency with which he sales products determines his economic well being.
Of the weaver spends around two weeks to produce a cloth and wait for four
weeks to sell it, the precious labour, time and his working capital is held up.
This will create not only economic and social pressures to
sell the products at low price or through under cut so as to survive him and
the family. The weaver is under pressure to sell his product at
a non-remunerative price to avoid cumulative and just to keep
him engaged in weaving.
Modernization and up-gradation of skill/equipments
Weaving is the inherent traditional skill by the weavers. This skill is
transmitted generation to generation without much diversification and
technique. Even though efforts were made for loom as well for skill improvement
by the BDS, it has not been benefited due to traditional mind setup of weaves.
Infrastructure
Most of weaving activities are operational in interior village. Some of these
villages have not even road connectivity. They do weaving in dark and dummy
room. Few SMEs established in district head quarter or block head quarter have
communication facilities limited to phone. Only few of them have fax
facilities. They even not realized the utilization of computer and internet.
CAD is not introduced in the clusters.
Contact Us
Mr. Sadanand Bhoi
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI)
Nr Village Bhat, Via Ahmedabad
Airport & Indira Bridge, P.O. Bhat - 382 428,
Dist. Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Phone: +91 - 79-23969153, 23969158
Mobile: +91 - 9437245724
Email: edisonepur@ediindia.org
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