Job Creation and Traditional Craft – Tasar Silk Weaving in Bhagalpur, India

I went off the beaten path to learn about Eco Tasar’s model for creating jobs for people at the base of the pyramid, visiting their silk spinning and reeling clusters in Jharkhand and weaving clusters in Bhagalpur, Bihar. They are vertically integrated, producing their own yarn and textiles, and are supporting the Tasar Silk weaving tradition at risk of dying out. In contrast to block printing in Bagru, Tasar Slik does not have the same appeal in Western markets due to a rougher hand-feel and being settled in one of the poorest states in India makes driving a tourist market extremely difficult. That being said, Eco Tasar has worked to adapt their product to the international home goods market, using wools and cotton to soften the feel and muted colors for a Western audience.

Eco Tasar is a typical cottage industry artisan producer, sourcing yarn and hand-weaving that is done in the home. This can be ideal for rural communities that have limited options for employment and may want to stay home to tend to farms, household chores, and children. It also gives people an alternative to seeking seasonal work in big cities, which would take them away from their homes and families. Despite these benefits for artisans, it can be difficult to work with international brands and abide by compliance regulations to sell products in countries like the U.S. Since the work is being done outside of a four-walled factory, certifications like fair-trade are not always applicable. I’ll be discussing players in the field that are doing great work to bridge this gap and help artisan brands like Eco Tasar reach global markets in a future post. For this article, I’ll look at how Eco Tasar is creating cottage industry opportunities for people in poor communities in India and preserving a cultural tradition.

Raw Materials – Silk Cocoons 

Tasar silk is at the root of their product. Although they don’t harvest the silk themselves, they source from local vendors near Eco Tasar’s Jharkhand office. During my time in Jharkhand, I visited the Ministry of Textiles’ Central Silk Board where I got to see some silk worms and cocoons up close. I never realized quite how large silk worms are, they’re fuzzy and adorable. Once the cacoons are spun they’re then harvested from the tree and used for making silk.

Making Yarn – Spinning and Reeling

After sourcing the raw materials, the cocoons are then distributed to the spinning and reeling villages. There are two methods of producing yarn, hand spinning and machine reeling. If the cocoon is damaged it cannot be used for reeling, so these will be sent to the spinning villages. Reeling takes a slingle thread from 8 to 10 cocoons and spins them togetner, spinning uses one cocoon at a time and twist the fibers together. Spinning and reeling produce different quality of fiber, reeling results in a much finer and smoother yarn and spinning is a bit coarser and slubbier. You can see the difference in the pictures below, reeled is on the left and spun is on the right.

The women in the spinning and weaving clusters were happy with their work and felt good about contributing to the family income. Since they had the tools to work from home, they could make yarn in between household work and caring for their children. The extra income has helped them send their kids to school, improve their households and buy luxury items like jewelry and clothing. Since they live in rural communities, traveling for work is difficult and almost unheard of for women. Giving them an opportunity to work from home offers them a chance to contribute to their family income that they wouldn’t otherwise have.

The women work together and store the finished product in the villages. Eco Tasar provides the raw materials up front, drops off and collects the materials from the villages and pays their spinners and reelers on a regular schedule. This allows the women to do their work without worrying about transportation, up front costs, or how much they’ll get paid and when. Having consistency and a reliable payment schedule can help families plan for dips in family income or unexpected emergencies.

Producing Textiles – Tasar Weaving

A couple hours away near Bhagalpur, I walked around weaving clusters and met weavers. You know you’re in a weaving cluster when you hear a steady clacking of looms as you pass by homes.

Eco Tasar distributes the materials to their Master Weavers who work with their network of weavers to create the textiles on their traditional pit looms. Weaving is a male-dominated tradition in India, so unlike spinning and weaving villages, all the weavers we spoke to were male. Since they don’t have to pay for the materials upfront, this reduces the financial burden of purchasing raw materials for orders. Much like with the spinning and reeling villages, Eco Tasar helps to maintain consistent orders and reduces the upfront capital burden for raw materials.

There was a different mood in the weaving clusters than I saw in the villages in Jharkhand. Most of the weavers I spoke with are not teaching their children and saw the craft dying out in the next 5 to 10 years. Without the market access and appreciation for handwoven textiles, they are being replaced by power looms that buzz in the city center. There was some variance in opinion between weavers, some were happy with their work and others were fairly negative about the future of the craft. It was clear though that it is becoming a niche market, that few consumers truly appreciate and value.

Women and children of working age are also often involved in the weaving preparation, from spinning bobbins to setting up the warp for the loom. Many families work as a team to create the textiles. Although women are not traditionally trained to weave, the dynamics are changing as women are being educated. For example, the Central Silk Board trains women to weave as part of their women’s empowerment program.

I’m anxious to revisit Eco Tasar’s work in a few years to see how the weaving clusters are faring. A great deal of product innovation and shifts in the market will need to take place to continue to grow the Tasar Silk market and to ensure that there is sufficient demand for the product at a price point that allows for a living wage for weavers. I have faith that the tradition will live on, but it may be turning into more of a luxury market as the cultural knowledge becomes scarce.

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Eco Tasar currently sells their products wholesale to international brands like West Elm and to local Indian retailers. You can also reach out to them directly through Instagram if you’re interested in purchasing their handwoven products.