Network Past Issues

The Desert Still Remembers
Sreejit Basu
It all started in 1987, a drought year, in western Rajasthan. Lunkaransar, a sub-division of Bikaner district, has suffered periodically from lack of rainfall for centuries. Drought years bring additional problems for the people of this area. This is because of a complete lack of alternative income-generating activities in this desert region. Still, this hardship was nothing new for the villagers, who were used to facing droughts. This would be another year when they would have to survive without relying on agriculture, their main income-generating activity.
The villages in Lunkaransar were traditionally dominated by communities of weavers, but through the years weaving had taken a back seat in the local economy. An NGO was working to improve health care facilities in the area. A person from this NGO saw an opportunity in the spindles of the poor villagers, which had been lying unused for many years. He contacted some government officials, who told him to get the villagers to spin woollen thread, which the government would then procure. So the NGO gave wool to the people and asked them to start weaving it, incurring some initial costs. The initial plan was to generate some income for the people by selling the woollen thread to the government.
However, fate had a different plan for the spinners. When the villagers finished spinning the wool, the drought year was over and so were the government grants for alternative income-generating activities. So when the NGO officials approached the government with the woven woollen thread, the authorities declined to procure it, stating that as the drought was over officially, government funds for drought relief had been withdrawn. This put the NGO officials in a fix. They discussed the problem with students from the National Institute of Design (NID), in Ahmedabad, about converting the thread into some useful product. They had woollen thread, but no buyer to purchase it at the right price. Just when the NGO authorities were exploring the best way of marketing the woollen thread, an employee of the NGO met a man from Phalodi (in Jodhpur district). He had come to Bikaner to sell pattu. Pattu is a small piece of hand-woven woollen cloth. It is also used as a wedding gift in western Rajasthan.
The NGO authorities got the idea of entering the pattu trade from the weaver from Phalodi. As they delved deeper into the subject, they found that, unlike the situation in Lunkaransar where weaving was a dead trade, in Phalodi it was still flourishing. Some traditional weavers were still living in Phalodi. So to take care of the excess thread and to provide an alternative income-generating activity for not only the people of Lunkaransar but also for the residents of Phalodi, the NGO thought of setting up weaving facilities in Lunkaransar. As the weaving trade was moribund in Lunkaransar, it was decided to invite some expert weavers from Phalodi to set up the facilities and to train the weavers of Lunkaransar. As part of the plan, five master weavers from Phalodi were brought together to establish the weaving facilities.
This NGO is the URMUL Trust. It was formed with the help of a grant of Rs 14 lakh from URMUL (Uttar Rajasthan Milk Union Ltd.). It was the brainchild of Mr. Sanjoy Ghose. Today, the URMUL Trust works with weavers from Lunkaransar, Bajju, Phalodi, and Pokhran.
Today, when we visit the villages around Pokhran and Phalodi, we can see the URMUL Trust employees still living and working among the local people. It is a weavers’ organisation today. The weavers, who were once small traders dealing in woollen cloth pieces, now occupy all the major administrative positions in URMUL.
In Gomat village, near Pokhran, lives Ratanram (name changed). He works at his pit-loom for eleven hours a day, with his wife assisting him. He earns almost Rs.100 a day. Still, he continues the tradition of pit-loom weaving as the other options of working as a stone mason or as a labourer in the city are not very good alternatives for him. In addition, his caste (Meghwal) has been associated with the weaving profession for generations. So for Ratanram and for other weavers like him, weaving is an activity that gives them a livelihood in the months when there is no agricultural work.
Over the years, some inefficiencies have crept into the functioning of URMUL, but it still remains one of the greatest sources of alternative livelihoods in the villages of western Rajasthan. Through the years, the names of URMUL and Sanjoy Ghose have become legendary in the desert land. People still remember Sanjoy Ghose as the man who sat with them to solve their problems and who had solutions to all their problems’. They still remember Sanjoyji visiting their villages and asking the weavers to stay on with UMBVS (Urmul Marusthali Bunkar Vikas Samiti), whose members included the weavers from Pokhran and Phalodi, and convincing them that UMBVS was a weavers’ organisation. The villagers also remember Sanjoy Ghose’s requests for giving the income thus generated to the women and also to spend it for a better standard of living. Some villagers still think Sanjoyji is needed to take care of their problems resulting from declining income, as he always had an answer to everything.
Building an institution is a very difficult task. It becomes even more difficult when the institution is located in a desert area with few sources of water, scorching heat, repeated droughts, frequent shortages of food, and declining agricultural productivity. The local people usually migrate to other, more hospitable place in such conditions, but today thanks to weaving they have an alternative income-generating activity, which helps them survive even in the harsh months. Weaving is a livelihood that they can carry out in their homes and also one in which other members of the family can be involved. It is a blessing for the desert, and the desert has reciprocated by making heroes out of ordinary men, by making heroes out of Sanjoy Ghose and URMUL.