Recently, e-commerce giant Amazon signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telangana Department of Handlooms and Textiles to help handloom clusters in Warangal, Pochampally etc. As the number of weavers has increased over the years but the sales haven’t gone up proportionally.
Warangal durries or rugs have been famous for many reasons such as they are made using vegetable colours, and are washed in flowing water after the printing process.
Pitta Ramulu, an award-winning weaver from Kothawada, Warangal has been making durries that use cotton and jute for 40 years. His durries have kalamkari patterns on them.
Pitta Ramulu was also the first weaver to get recognized with a national award, he had won the ‘‘National Handloom Award’ for 2015. Ramulu’s durries can be now found on Amazon.
Ramulu is hoping the number of orders increases. Orders haven’t picked up much. So far, he has got a few orders through Amazon.
Adepu Ravi, another weaver from Warangal who signed up on Amazon, said that business was okay otherwise, but he has not received any orders from the e-commerce giant as yet.
According to the Handloom Export Promotion Council, Warangal has been a long-standing centre for durries and 80% of the handwoven durries sold in European and American markets are woven in India.
In March 2016, the Telangana State Handicrafts Development Corporation tied up with Amazon India to sell local hand-made ‘Golkonda’ handicraft products. Many weavers are also registered on the India Handmade Bazaar, a portal sponsored by the Government of India, which also sells Indian handlooms and handicrafts.
This is only one amongst the many initiatives that have been picked up to get more handicrafts and handlooms online and available to a larger group of people, including the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Earlier, Amazon had partnered with the handloom division of Union Ministry of Textiles to train and enable cooperative groups so that they could sell their products directly on the website.
Currently, there are about 24 weaver associations and societies who have registered on Amazon to sell their wares. .
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