The picturesque town of Narsapuram is situated on the West Bank of the Vasista Godavari River. At this point, the river flows into the Bay of Bengal and its vicinity forms the tail-end delta area. The town is famous for cotton crochet lacemaking for over a century. Most of the rural and semi-urban women belonging to backward communities eke out their livelihood by lacemaking.
It was introduced by Macre of Scotland, a nurse, working at the Missionary Hospital in Narsapuram. She wanted to teach women how they can make money staying at home. The art of lacemaking became a tradition in 30 villages in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh with every woman handing over the art to the next generation. While men worked in the fertile lands of the Godavari delta and produced bumper crops for landlords, women earned their name in making laces.
“Today women of this district and parts of the East Godavari district on the other side of Godavari export different varieties made out of lace to countries such as the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand,” says Kondapu Satyasri, President of Godavari Delta Women Lace Artisans Cooperative Cottage Industrial Society Ltd, an umbrella organisation that provides a platform for more than 250 women artisans.
The all-woman group comprises artisans of different ages who are provided with raw materials and a model of the required final product by the society.
Explaining the reason for setting up the society for women artisans, Satyasri said that her mother Hemalatha, who used to sell home-made lace items in Narsapuram and its vicinity by trekking, had realised that illiterate and poor women need a common platform to end exploitation by middlemen.
At that time lace artisans were exploited by exporters who used to purchase articles by paying low amount and meagre wages and making huge profits by selling them. Despite hard work there was no certainty. Also, the artisans had to work throughout the year. Their employment depended on the orders middlemen received.
Middlemen had a monopoly in the entire lace business. The earnings of artisans were not sufficient for the maintenance of their families. The work involved hard labour and needed attention as they were expected to give exquisite finishing to the final product. But skilled lace workers were underpaid for years.
Frustrated with the continuous exploitation by middlemen, Hemalatha approached the All India Handicrafts Board for help and she was advised to form a co-operative society. She became the founder president and designer of the society. She faced many troubles and tribulations, particularly technical problems, to get the society registered.
Hemalatha, with the aim and objective of bettering the financial position of the lace artisans, travelled across the Godavari district for two years to convince women artisans to join hands.
She enrolled women artisans as members and applied for registration to the government as a cooperative society. Middlemen exerted their influence to prevent the registration of the society. Members had to resort to a hunger strike on the premises of the Industries Department at the district headquarters for not registering the society. The matter was also taken at the ministerial level and at last she was successful in getting the society registered on May 19, 1979.
Aims of the society are to impart technical training to members, encourage self-help, mutual aid and cooperation and strive hard for the betterment and uplift of the downtrodden members, provide better wages and profits to its members and do all such acts as may be conducive to the betterment of the members.
“Unity is the key as most of the raw materials are purchased from other states like thread from Delhi and Bengaluru, dye from Erode and Tirupur. Wholesale purchases made them cheaper,” Satyasri said.
In 1983, the society started its first business with Trade Aid, Christchurch, New Zealand, for supplying handmade cotton crochet lace goods.
The artisans produce items such as rounds, runners, ovals, squares, oblongs, cushion covers, pillow covers, bedspreads, caps, jug covers, glass covers, beaded bags, denim bags, wool bags, jute with lace bags, canvas tote bags, coasters, potholders, pin flower brooches, lace necklaces, headbands, shawls, scarves, stoles, bookmarks, proverbs, wall hangings, woollen throws, baby blankets, recycled saree shawls, shawls, scarves, ponchos, blouses, skirts, tops, bookmarks and wall hanging texts.
They also do Ikat hand-woven bedspreads, Kalamkari hand-block print bedspreads, cushion covers, bamboo fabric with Kalamkari print, canvas with Kalamkari print, linen cloth with Kalamkari print, Muslin with Kalamkari print. There is also an official website of the Godavari Delta artisans that allows overseas purchasers select the items they want to buy.
However, the only worry these delta women have is that the new generation girls are not interested in continuing the tradition of lacemaking. “They prefer to go to big cities and be a checkout girl at a big mall that pays them well on a monthly basis,” Varalakshmi of Sakhinetipalli village says.
Artisans like Varalakshmi say that unless the government intervenes and makes lacemaking profitable, the art will die a natural death in the cradle of the Godavari delta that has nurtured the rare art.