JIPSUDIH Weavers Village.
We are Sawansis, the endogamous weaver clan of the Munda society. For centuries, we have practiced our traditional art to weave bridal sarees (Songolparia), priests' robes (botoi) and dancing apparels for men and women (kareya and lahanga) for the Munda community. No tribal wedding celebration in the region would be complete without these.
But times changed. Our purely handwoven articles started proving too costly for the average, poor tribal. Our craft started languishing.
We have organized ourselves in a Co-operative Society and we have diversified our production into a range of furnishings useful to people like you. Without sacrificing our traditional character, design and motifs of weaving, we are now in production of
With this "primitive" technology, we turn out articles of artistic handicraft that we feel, you must see in order to believe.
You will not only find our designs so bold and beautiful that one large piece would dominate a whole room, but will also notice many other special features:
Our current strength lies in our Society, a vibrant, well-organised purposeful Co-operative that we formed in 1988.
In the olden days, all Sawansis had to work on outdoor looms and were compelled to suspend weaving during 4-5 months of very hot summer followed by the very wet monsoon. They had to trudge long distances to a Sardar or Mahajan only to be told, as often as not, that he had no money to pay wages that day or no yarn to issue for further weaving.
Not so any more. We have now acquired 20 acres of land and set up a weavers' village with a central workshed, office-cum-store building, residential houses for 20 weaver families, farmlands and a community well. In memory of a dear young friend Jipsu, we have named it Jipsudih Weavers' Village. It is located near village Torankel, six kms from Khunti in the district of Ranchi.
We have a weekly assembly, in which weavers from Jipsudih and 8-10 other villages come to deposit their week's output, collect wages and are given yarn for the next week's weaving with instructions on what to weave. At least for the 15 weavers living in Jipsudih and working in the central workshed, there is now uninterrupted work throughout the year.
The working of our Society is marked by some features that may impress you:
His wife Ms. Milicent Chatterjee has been our constant guide in matters of design, social issues and environmental concerns.
We remain sad that the person who inspired his parents to take up our cause, Chatterjees' young son Pathikrit alias Jipsu, is no more. A drowning accident took his life on 25th August 1997 when he was about to graduate as an engineer at 22. While he lived, he always accompanied his father to our proposed new village during vacations, taking deepest interest in production, village layout, construction and everything else and became a wonderful brother to all of us. Eternal gratitude to his sacred memory persuaded us to name our new village after him.
Those who deal with us indeed deal with Mr. Chatterjee. So they may feel assured of responsibility, intelligence and honesty in our response every time.
One can see our products on the shelves of some leading handloom/handicraft emporia of India. Some prestigious hotels in the country have all their beds draped with our bedcovers. So do several leading training institutions and the guest houses of important corporate houses. Very eminent persons rising up-to the level of Governor of a state, have found our products excellent gift items. And no one who ever bought our products has had cause to complain ever.
YOU WILL GET MORE THAN YOUR MONEY'S WORTH AND WILL SUPPORT A WORTHY CAUSE IN THE PROCESS.
Thank you for visiting NIVUCHA Co-operative Society's site and we hope that you will visit again and refer about our site to your friends.