Rasulpur: As many as 10 weavers from Gopalpur village under Rasulpur block in Jajpur district Monday turned away their faces from their traditional occupation, a source said.
The villagers left their native place and went to Surat in Gujarat to eke out a living amid financial stress owing to Covid-19. As their traditional occupation has been suffering from severe crisis, the weavers had no other way out, some of them lamented.
“We will try our luck in Surat and hope that we will find jobs in textile factories there,” Bharat Das, one of the migrating weavers said. Several others including Bankabihari Das, Harihara Guin, Bhramarabar Das, Mayadhar Guin, Jagabandhu Das, Rakesh Das, Batakrushna Das and Ramesh Guin echoed Bharat’s claim.
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In a series, cyclone Fani followed by flood in Brahmani River during August 2020 and now Covid-19 outbreak has badly devastated their financial standing. They failed to repair their handlooms and arrange raw materials to continue with the traditional occupation, family members of the weavers said.
It is pertinent to mention, Gopalpur village is famous as a hub for intricate designs of tassar textiles and sarees. Over 1,000 members belonging to different families in the village weave tassar clothes.
The weavers had earlier communicated their issues to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik by writing a letter to him around two months ago. Without concrete administrtive support, it has been learnt that many more weavers wish to leave for Surat leaving the traditional occupation behind.
PNN
