Saravanavelan and his business partner Ravi, go from door to door, selling sarees. Each carries two large bags of handloom sarees. A substantial part of their cargo comprises sarees made with a rather unusual, unconventional material—bamboo. Saravanavelan says that the demand for bamboo sarees is on the rise, because of the texture and its lightweight.
Both of them come from Karaikudi, a town in southern Tamil Nadu. There are about 1200 weavers in Karaikudi, though only half of them are active in business today, as the younger generation is leaving the ancestral craft for better and easier jobs. The yarns come from Assam and are dyed near Dindigul (TN).
Weavers buy from the ‘Society’, based on orders. “Earlier, large retailers like Pothy’s and RMK used to place orders for 500-600 sarees (of all kinds, not just bamboo), paying money in advance; but after the pandemic, they are asking for supplies on credit,” says Saravanavelan. Credit sales to large stores are not affordable by the weavers. Hence the focus on door-to-door sales.
Bamboo sarees come in a rich variety of colours and designs and are lapped up by customers. The sarees are bought in bulk by families for gifting on occasions such as weddings. One can hardly tell apart the sarees made of bamboo yarn from the rest.
“The demand for bamboo sarees is on the rise,” says Saravanavelan. He is unable to increase sales because of the constraint of yarn availability to weavers.
VERSATILE BAMBOO
This brings into focus the bamboo economy.
The area under bamboo cultivation in India is 15.69 million hectares which is more than the landmass of Bangladesh or Greece or Iceland or Ireland. Bamboo is not only a good money-spinner for the rural economy, but is also a big carbon sink—a hectare of bamboo can suck up 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Dr Bharati Nambi, Director, Growmore Biotech, has developed a special variety of bamboo called the ‘Beema’ bamboo, a high-yielding variety. Nambi says that the variety is suitable for making textiles. There is as yet insufficient awareness of ‘beema bamboo,” but when it gets better known, it could well turn out to be a good supplement for cotton. In fact, weavers are only making sarees with bamboo, though dhotis, towels… can also be produced with it. From the perspective of the “rural Indian”, bamboo can be a game-changer in terms of economics. It provides them with shelter, furniture, a cheap source of energy, paper… and now sarees.
