Sujit Meher
India’s rich and diverse culture has always been looked up to and is worldwide famous. The Indian Handloom industry is one of the largest sectors, however, with the emergence of Industrialization, the art of handloom is dying somewhere. Back in the day, weavers held a strong position in society however in recent times they have been suffering a lot economically. One such dying handloom industry is Habaspuri, which is based in Odisha, India. The Indian government has tried to help the handloom industries by using various strategies however they have not got the expected results. Many individuals have also tried to bring change in the conditions of the handloom industry. One such person who is working wholeheartedly towards bringing a change in the handloom industry is Sujit Meher, an ace Fashion Designer.
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Hailing from Chichaiguda in the Kalahandi district, Odisha, Sujit Meher was born among the weavers where ‘Habaspuri’ handloom took birth. Being a fashion designer by profession he is also an emerging entrepreneur. The community of ‘Habaspuri’ made him fall in love with fashion and that influenced him to go into the field of fashion designing and clothes. Unlike any other handloom industry, the Habaspuri handloom is also struggling and Sujit feels like he must help the weavers of the handloom for that, he started a workshop on March 12, 2022. The workshop is a ‘revival project’ that aims to make people aware about the Habaspuri Handloom’s existence. In the workshop, people can trained with the technique of the Habaspuri style of weaving.
The Indian government has taken various initiatives to help the weavers community but unfortunately, no government support has been given to the Habaspuri Handloom yet. Despite this Mr. Sujit did not hesitate from coming forward and helping people, all the types of equipment, machinery, material, etc are provided by him. The best part is that the workshop is completely free, so no one has to think twice before getting enrolled in the workshop, even if someone isn’t that well versed but wants to get trained they can. Many women and Self-help groups also became a part of this workshop.
The art of Habaspuri Handloom is influenced by the old traditions of Kalahandi. The handloom has unique designs and patterns like the Kumbha, fish, tortoise, flower, tribal wall art, tattoos, etc. The borders are decorated with temple motifs and the anchal also has extra weft designs consisting of local motifs. As Sujit was born in the home of Habaspuri Handloom, he has closely seen both, the talent and the struggles faced by the weavers.
Taking about his motive and inspiration Sujit expressed, “Since I was a kid I had closely observed the master weaver Ugrasen Meher work day and night to revive the Habaspuri Handloom as the weavers stopped weaving when the dynastical rule ended. Growing up I also saw weavers leaving the traditional weaving culture because of the negligence and issues they were facing. This caused a lot of pain to master weaver Ugrasen, in his last days he was crying and asking me to do something for the handloom. This hit me hard and that is when I decided to move forward and help the Habaspuri community. Unfortunately, now only a few weavers are left in the community but this won’t stop us and we’ll continue this initiative till the end.”
Weaving is a magnificent art, it is a sad truth that the weaver's community is declining but on the bright side, people like Sujit Meher are working 24*7 to help the community. The Habaspuri ‘revival project’ will spread more knowledge about the weaving style and more people will get to know about the struggles faced by the community. The workshop’s aim to train more individuals will definitely add more people to the weaver's community, who will keep the art from disappearing.
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