The Museum of Digital Society: A Living Archive of Digital Inclusion
Between November and January, Saindapur village in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a massive drop in business for handloom weavers. Once flourishing with the clitter-clatter of handlooms, Saidanpur — which is home to 200 weaver families — today complains of acute lack of work. After a number of meetings with suppliers and weavers in the area, it has been learnt that due to lack of cash flow in the local economy, weavers find themselves without work for days at a stretch. This is a story of Saidanpur, where average daily household income for a family of six to eight is Rs. 120.
The handloom sector has several layers of people include. These include raw material supplier, dyer, weaver, master weaver. Since all of them are dependent on cash (for procurement, processing, weaving and wages), demonitisation has led to an absolute fall in business, so much so that many weavers have moved to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh for work as construction labours, leaving behind their homes, their art and their talent.
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