Indian sari weavers fight for survival

On the River Ganges lies the Indian city of Varanasi, which is well-known for its ancient custom of sari weaving. The beautiful silk saris are handmade. But nowadays, Varanasi is in danger of losing this craft.

Cheaper machine-made products are imported from abroad. The weavers, who work with wooden handlooms, are upset. Mohammad Sirajuddin's anxious he'll be the last handloom user in his family.

Mohammad Sirajuddin: "Our production of handloom Banarasi saris has come down significantly. If you walk around this whole neighbourhood and look, you'll see that this is the only house with a handloom unit. Even this will be here only as long as I am alive. After that, nobody in this house will continue hand weaving."

The saris from this community are famous for their beauty and detail. People pay more than $400 for a handmade sari. However, the weavers themselves receive just a small part of this sum.

Expert Jaya Jaitly, who's written a book on the topic, strongly believes this tiny industry needs protecting by the Indian government.

Jaya Jaitly: "But I do still believe very strongly that the handloom must be supported because we have the largest number of varieties of handloom, techniques, skills and people employed more than anywhere else in the world. And I think that's truly a tradition to be proud of. No other country in the world can claim the variety of handmade textiles that India has."

The Indian clothing industry is used to foreign competition. In the 18th century, low-cost English imports had a very negative effect. Since the 1990s, huge amounts of Chinese clothing have been imported.

However, for Jaitly, the quality and culture of handmade products is a different story.

Jaya Jaitly: "So all of these were thriving industries. It got killed through mechanisation and even more so through Chinese competition and their push and their ability to produce huge quantities at very low prices. Now the economics works but the humanity doesn't work, the culture doesn't work, livelihoods don't work."

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