Varanasi Weavers

The Varanasi project is nearing two years of completion. Many goals have been achieved and we have forged a strong partnership with the weavers’ community.

There are still many targets to be achieved for the community to become self sufficient. Some of our future objectives are:

• Organising villages into self-help groups able to deal with the marketing of the textiles by themselves.
• Linking them with an overall market platform.
• Conducting training programmes for using new technologies such as e-mail and websites, specially for marketing purposes.
• Upgrading the looms. Most of the looms are in a very primitive or dilapidated state, because the weavers' community has for a long time had insufficient money to invest in infrastructure.
• Engaging women in livelihood programmes related to weaving, so they are complimentary to the main craft.
• Encourage designers to create designs which will bring the weavers work and open new markets for their products. In this context, Priyadarshini Rao has just finished a number of new designs, and there is more to come.
• Upasana is also creating samples of Varanasi textiles which can be launched in the market, and is arranging for a dedicated team to become active on site to support the weavers.
• Creating awareness about this crisis of the Varanasi weavers in India (which has not been done to date)