Webinar Handloom - The Rich Heritage of India 2021 @ ICAT, Bangalore

Fashion and Apparel Design department Of ICAT Design and Media College Bangalore organized a webinar on “HANDLOOMS – The Rich Heritage of India” on 7th Aug 2021. The guest speakers were Mr. Gautham Sai, Founder of Rawganic Clothing and Indian Rivers, Vijayawada, AP, Mr. Naveenan, Senior Buyer, Rawganic Clothing and Mr. Devaraja (BE in Textiles) - Founder of Arkaat pure silk products of handloom, Bangalore. The agenda of the webinar was to highlight the importance of the handloom sector and start infusing handloom textiles in our day to day life to support weavers of our nation. Mr. Naveenan and Mr. Gautham Sai highlighted the factors which are contributing to the decline of handlooms in the current scenario. Also the various government plans or schemes which are available for the weavers for survival were discussed.

The learned speakers informed that the webinar was organized with a view to deliberate on the challenges faced in the handloom sector that is serving a very large sector of artisans, craft persons, handicraft exporters and women artisans. Issues and concerns from speakers in the handloom industry were flagged during the webinar. The participants enquired suggestions on the schemes or measures that the government needs to take to promote handloom products and to meet the challenge of machine made products that areencroaching on the livelihoods of the genuine artisans.

A movie showcasing the artisan’s life and skills was shown to the staff from 3 PM to 5:30 PM at the college Auditorium. A movie “Kanchivaram” which has won best film in 55th national film awards was screened The movie depicts the pitiable state of the silk weavers in the town of Kanchipuram as they were unorganized and marginalized to live a perpetual ‘hand-to-mouth’ existence. The movie shows their struggles and ends with a comment about the cooperative movement that emerged to take care of the interests of the workers.