GUWAHATI: Weavers in Sualkuchi have lauded the Centre and Assam government for its green signal to the state tableau, themed on the silk industry of the lower Assam town, which will be a part of the Republic Day exposition at Rajpath, come Saturday.
The Union ministry of defence had on Monday cleared the tableau after the Assam government’s proposal to display Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Sualkuchi in 1946, was rejected by the screening committee of the ministry.
“We had a meeting yesterday and the consensus among the weavers was that all are very happy now that Sualkuchi would get both national and global attention. We thank the Centre for approval of the tableau and the Assam government for taking the initiative to highlight the cocoon-to-loom process along with skills of our silk weavers,” Hiralal Kalita, a master weaver and secretary of the Sualkuchi Tat Silpa Unnayan Samiti, told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.
Presently, there are over 6,700 active weavers under the Unnayan Samiti. About 70 per cent of them are mulberry (locally called pat) weavers. The rest are muga, tasar and eri weavers.
The tableau proposals of 14 states including Assam out of the 32 proposals submitted were accepted by the ministry.
“The initiative will also give our silk the much needed publicity as we look to boost the culture with an aim for better returns,” Kalita added.
Weavers of the village are currently availing of raw mulberry from a yarn bank at 20 per cent subsidy on the market rate, thanks to a mulberry yarn bank under Assam Apex Weavers and Artisans Co-op Fed Ltd (ARTFED) which was opened in September last year.
Prior to that, the absence of a government yarn bank had left many weavers of the silk town at the mercy of private yarn merchants and middlemen who traded raw materials from outside at whopping rates. However, the National Handloom Development Corporation had provided 4kg per month to each weaver at 10 per cent subsidy on the mill grade rate, offering some relief.
