In the heart of the Mirzapur-Bhadohi carpet belt, there is a group of about 192 skilled carpet weavers with two features that distinguish them from the rest of the weaving community.
First, they are all women, who participated in a path-breaking skills-training programme to learn weaving. Second, they've all been unemployed ever since the programme ended in 2001.
"In my eyes, we failed those women," said Manju Gupta, coordinator of STEP Foundation, the Swiss NGO that began this programme, "I know that sounds harsh. But what is the point of teaching the women a skill if they can't earn a living from it?" STEP Foundation's aim has been to reduce the instance of child labour in the carpet industry.
Gupta's premise was that to successfully keep children out of the workplace, they needed to create employment for older household members.
"So we decided to target women. Unfortunately in Mirzapur, as in most of rural India, women have few avenues of employment other than agricultural labour, which occupies them for barely 100-120 days annually, and women always get paid lower wages than men," said she. So the STEP Foundation decided to set up eight weaving training centres for the women of UP's carpet belt.
"Within the first few months, we had long lines of women, begging us to take them," said Gupta. This was despite the fact that in that area, women rarely left their homes to seek work. I had visited these training centres in August 2000, and remember being struck by the visible confidence and self esteem of the women weavers.
All 192 of them picked up weaving very fast, as it was not alien to them -- many of them had looms in their homes, and had grown up seeing their fathers, brothers and husbands weave. Some had also done ancillary activities in the industry, making balls of yarn, sorting colours on finished carpets, and so on.
As they became used to their own income, most began indulging themselves with the occasional packet of glucose biscuits, new bangles and hair clips -- and were exhilarated with their new-found independence, so much at variance with other village women.
Even then, Gupta cautioned them, saying the real test would come when they finished their training and STEP would step away, leaving them to function as commercial carpet production units.
"But the time these women completed their training was bad. The mercurial industry went into recession, and all our importer-partners who'd promised to place their orders with these women's units, backed out," said Gupta ruefully.
In the absence of any work, most units were shut down, the looms sold at discounted rates. Today, the only women from that group who are still weaving, are those with family looms. "But they are barely thirty per cent of the total!" cried Gupta, "we had aimed that that they'd all be working!" The women, even after training, don't weave as fast as the men, carpetmen argue.
"They won't, if you don't give them a chance to improve their speed!" said Gupta indignantly. The men don't take off when their children are sick, or their sister-in-law's visiting, loom owners say.
"True, but women are far more dedicated," Gupta defended, "and don't go on endless bidi-breaks!" While Gupta and the carpet manufacturers-exporters debate the issue, the biggest losers are the women weavers.
Having tasted the heady pleasure of earning for themselves, they find it tough to go back to their old lives. All they can do is wait for the carpet industry's mindset to change, and that probably won't happen in a hurry.