Bearing cocoon waste stench to earn daily bread

Workers at Idludu bear unbearable stench and toil hard to get Rs 300 a day or more by separating cocoon waste from silk waste. 

While good cocoons are boiled and the bad, damaged cocoons remain waste in filature. The cocoon and silk waste generated after boiling cocoons are discarded by sericulturists.

 Such waste which emits foul smell, is collected by the workers who process them again on the outskirts of the village. While good cocoons are used for production of raw silk, while defective cocoons are degummed for hand-spun silk.

 Pupae serve as fish fed and also used for extraction of oil. 

Devaraj, a worker, said they bring cocoon waste left in the filatures at the factories to their work den on the village outskirts.

 The process the waste to separate cocoon from silk. They keep the waste in storage for a day and later they separate the cocoons from the silk. The waste silk  is dried in the sun. “We are used to the stench now. We begin the work at 6 am and continue till 11 am.

 But others regard us with disdain as we smell bad due to the work we do,” said Devaraj. 

They earlier sold pupae for soap factories to extract oil. These days fishermen from Rajakpalya and Chinnasandra buy them as fish feed paying Rs 180 per box.

The silk is sold for thread weaving units at Ramanagar at a price of Rs 25 a kg, said Devaraj.