SAREES FOR SANKRANTHI

SAREES FOR SANKRANTHI

dāram brings to Hyderabad a special range of sarees from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh for Sankranthi.

1) TRADITIONAL KANTHA and contemporary hand block printed sarees from Weavers Studio, Kolkata, West Bengal
Dates: 1st to 7th January

2) GADWAL and NARAYANPET sarees in natural dyes and contemporary designs.
Dates: 1st to 15th January

Gadwal sarees

3) MAHESHWARI sarees, dupattas, stoles and ready to stitch salwar kurta sets from REHWA SOCIETY, Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh
Dates: 8th to 12th January

Maheshwari saris

New Winter introductions at dāram

dāram brings to Hyderabad a special range of Woolens and BodyCare products from the Himalayas this winter.

1) Pure wool handwoven shawls and stoles from ‘KUMAON GRAMEEN UDYOG’ from Uttarakhand

The products have been woven in a small weaving centre at village Buribana near Mukteshwar as part of KGU’s income generation programme.

2) Pure wool, hand knitted sweaters, mufflers and caps from ‘KULLU KARISHMA’, Himachal Pradesh

Kullu Karishma has worked over a decade to revive and revitalize spinning, knitting and weaving with local angora wool and develop livelihoods in the process.

3) Natural soaps, face wash and scrubs from ‘SUNDARAM’, Uttarakhand

Sundaram products are made from a range of natural products like rhododendron flowers, honey, goats milk, almonds, etc.
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dāram, Hyderabad’s exclusive cotton handloom garment store works towards strengthening traditional weavers and small farmers.
In continuation of this effort, the store has, in collaboration with traditional craftspeople and groups from different parts of the Himalayas, brought to Hyderabad a limited, but select range of products for winter. Produced with natural materials and by using minimal energy, the products contribute to local livelihoods with minimal impact on the environment.

Dhebariya shepherds with their flock of sheep, Kutch, Gujarat

Spinning wool into yarn, Kullu Karishma, Himachal

On the loom...

10th June 2007 - when dāram began

dāram

Dastkar Andhra's new retail initiative

Handloom Garments & other handcrafted products

THE INAUGURATION - 10th June

Chief Guest, Nandita Das inaugurating the store

Lighting the lamp

At the inauguration - A full house

An evening with Kabir - A recital by Sagari Ramdas

BUT, BEFORE IT ALL
putting it together...

Naik Estate, ICICI Bank Lane, Beside Airport Lane, Begumpet, Hyderabad – 500016
Tel: +91 40 27765503. Fax: +91 40 27892905. Email: daram.da@gmail.com

Strengthening traditional weavers and small farmers

Food and clothing is generally believed to reflect the culture and state of any civilization. Therefore, the nature of production and consumption of these two categories is crucial to assess the health of the society. The challenge is not to increase productive capacity through increasing technical excellence which in today’s parameters is only speed and quantity but to look at technical excellence which is human and environment friendly.

Given the current crisis in agriculture, there have been large-scale migrations of youth out of villages. This correlates to the rising number of migrant workers in construction work, which is emerging as the largest urban livelihood. A movement upwards is still possible for those with access to formal education in the urban economy. There is no place for upward mobility for the migrants with scarce resources. The task before society is to rejuvenate the rural economy by supporting small farmers and traditional weavers.

Handloom weaving, till now seen as a craft based, cottage industry still employs a large number of rural families, second only to agriculture. But the perception of the industry only as a traditional craft has masked the trajectory of a large number of weavers who have, over the last ten years used it to achieve a reasonable livelihood, and moved their next generation into mainstream livelihoods. While urban India struggles to manage a growing populations’ infrastructure needs, the vulnerability of a fast changing polarized society is still a challenge that neither policy nor the market has been able to address.

It is our belief that handloom offers a hope to our villages, if it can be established as a viable livelihood for the next generation which faces threat of large-scale migrations into urban slums.