War widows are picking up the threads of their lives in the beautiful hill town of Ranikhet.
fredericknoronha
Threads of hope
War widows are picking up the threads of their lives in the beautiful
hill town of Ranikhet. Rachna Bisht-Rawat climbs up the hills to find
that these brave women have dignity woven into their hearts
Up in the hills of Ranikhet, in the militarily perfect Kumaon
Regimental Centre campus with its deeply curving roads stretched on
gently undulating slopes, is a stone building sitting on a hillock
announced by the signboard - KRC Woollens. Those who park their cars
on the bend in the road and walk up the stretch of steps cut into the
hillside are never disappointed. That is because KRC Woollens sells
some of the best woollen shawls and tweed in the country on an almost
no profit, no loss basis.
The small showroom is stocked with some of the most exquisite spools
of woollen fabric in colours ranging from elegant creams and soft
browns to brilliant canary yellows and lively pinks. For men, there is
material as well as fashionably cut and tailored blazers in stylish
tweed in shades of grey and brown, some with even a hint of maroon or
yellow for the more adventurous dressers. However, there is something
else that makes KRC Woollens special. Since few visitors bother to
step inside, they miss out on the rows of looms spread out in the
factory and the smiling Pahari women who are bent over them.
What makes the tweed from KRC Woollens acquire a bit of soul is the
fact that it is weaved by the slim and deftly moving fingers of a war
widow. The project was started by the Kumaon Regimental Centre to give
employment options to widows of soldiers who lost their lives in wars
or war like situations. Around 10 women work at the factory to produce
approximately 80 plain shawls a month.
Inside, you can meet the gentle-faced Rama Bhandari, wife of Havaldar
Jeevan Singh of 3 Kumaon who lost his life in the Kargil war; the
crinkle eyed Dharma Devi whose husband died in the 1965 operation; and
others like 36-year-old Kamla Devi with three growing children who
lost her husband in a tragic accident.
"The factory was set up with the aim to rehabilitate war widows,"
explains Hon Capt Sher Singh, looking after the project. "We function
on a completely no profit, no loss basis and the ladies even have the
option of staying in our War Widows Hostel," he explains.
The women get paid at the rate of Rs 45 for a plain shawl, Rs 198 for
a Ranikhet shawl, and Rs 240 for a Dharchula shawl - differentiated
by interesting weaves and patterns. Not really a lot of money but just
enough to support a widow on a small pension living in an inexpensive
small town and let her live with dignity on the small pension her dead
husband in entitled to. The women - most coming from nearby villages
of Kumaon - are first given intensive training for eight months till
their fingers set on the looms. They then start working on plain
shawls and go on to the more intricately patterned Dharchulas.
I meet Savitri Devi, wife of late Naik Jaykishan busily bent over the
bright green shawl that slips between her fair fingers lined with
delicate blue veins. "I lost my husband 22 years back," she says with
a smile that is tinged with pain. I manage to get
about Rs 2,500 per month from KRC. Things would
have been much better if he had been alive, but at least my family is
not starving," she says with quiet dignity. It is the same dignity
that gets transferred to the shawl that she weaves.