Thari shawl-makers weave their way out of bondage

HYDERABAD: Mukesh Menghwar was busy at his home-based weaving unit in village Tabho Menghwar, Tharparkar district, knitting different varieties of shawls.

His whole family is skilled. Three generations of Mukesh’s family, including him, both his parents, and his grandmother, work at the weaving unit. They all have assigned tasks to accomplish every day.

They prepare the thread rolls and fix them on frames for weaving.

Tabho village is made up of around 150 families. Almost all the families have their own home-based small units of textile weaving looms, where multigenerational people work together. The skills have been transferred from one generation to another.

On a visit to Mukeh’s home-based unit in the village, he briefed about the different sizes and colours used in making shawls keeping in mind the demand of the market. The shawl looks light, with thick embroidery-like weaving, using silk, soft pashmina, and ordinary threads to refine the popular Thari shawl.

The prices of shawls vary, depending on the quality of work, size, thickness and threads. It ranges anywhere between Rs500 and Rs5,000 per shawl. The family showed some costly designs, which they believe do not have high demand in the urban market because of its thickness and cost of quality threads and work. Therefore, they concentrate on the average products that are more in demand.

Mukesh started developing his skills at a very young age. He went to the local school and got primary education. Instead of continuing higher education, he joined his family’s business to nurture his passion for his ancestral work and help his family earn their livelihood.

The family has a pile of 60 prepared shawls in a variety of colours, packed in bags for selling in the market. He said the COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions that continued for months disturbed the artisans because of market closure.

But, since many artisans had the raw materials in their workshops, they continued making the products. “We get raw material from cities, including Mithi and Karachi for this work. We know the quantity and quality of threads needed to make the maximum number of shawls in different sizes on one frame,” said Mukesh.

Larger frames are set for around eight to ten shawls. Since they weave for a long time, they know how many shawls of varying sizes can be made on the same frame. They cut off when one is completed, and continue the next one from there.

“It depends on clients, who place orders in different colours and sizes – both small and large, measuring 1.5 to 2.5 meters each,” he said, adding that matching colours were also as per the client’s choice. Each shawl has three to four colours. Some shawls take two-three days, which need more work and have more value in the urban market.

These artisans normally prepare two or three shawls daily, which they keep and supply to the market in bulk. They continue work, despite effects of weather and changing political atmosphere in the country.

They have in-house setups with old wooden-tools for different works and each worker in the family has a fixed of their own. Thari shawls have a distinct recognition, and attract buyers in rural as well as urban markets of Pakistan. Hundreds of families in Tharparkar district depend on this specific work for livelihood.

Choona Menghwar, wife of Shankar in the same village, sharing her experience, said previously they used to get raw material on a small loan from traders and were restricted to sell the product to them on the pre-set rates, which were low compared to the market. But now they feel comfortable selling their product directly in the market at reasonable prices. There was now a restriction on supplying products to lenders, she said.

Though, she said many still depended on this system of trade in other villages of the desert. “They work as debt labourers and cannot violate the traditions of selling the product to others,” she explained.

Bonded labourers usually fail to pay their debt to the lender, as the lender never buys their product at the same rate as the market.

Each home has similar wooden frames with a variety of threads in various colours, and the family members can be seen weaving these shawls, which can be seen displayed in the luxury outlets across the country. Elderly people could not recall when shawl-making became an art and a tradition in their area. They only know that their mothers, grandmothers and mother-in-laws transferred their skills to them.

Only a small number of elderly artisans claim to have the skill to prepare a warm shawl, locally called Khatha, by using camel wool (hair), which was also popular in the market. However, that shawl was no longer available due to the changing demand and unavailability of camel wool in the local market.

Kanhai Asnani of Thardeep Rural Development Programme (TRDP), leading the artisan communities to promote this specific craft in Thar Desert, said despite the skills, a number of craftswomen lived below the poverty line.

They have encouraged families by offering financial support to rescue them from the debt system. They provided raw material to these poor artisan families to live and work safely without any restriction.

A large number of families in the village have gotten rid of the debt-related restrictions through getting the support. The TRDP aims to save this home-based industry, which is a source of living for hundreds of families in the desert.

Only in this village, they have helped 92 families through financial support. These families now work independently and sell the products in the market directly to earn enough income. In fact, there have been many changes in this home-based industry where artisans have adopted modern tools to weave the fabric shawls to compete in the growing market.

“But here in the desert villages, the situation is yet to be changed,” he said, adding that woven fabric work has high demand in the urban markets, where these Thari shawls were displayed. Despite the value, producers face hardships because of the traders’ monopoly.

In the Thar Desert, hundreds of herder families move to barrage areas every year for a few months for rearing their animals and working as labourers in the wheat and sugarcane fields during harvest. They return after the desert receives rains. But these artisan families do not leave their abodes in any weather phenomenon, including drought. They use their skills to weave these precious shawls for the market and earn a little to fight against droughts and other extreme conditions.