Women and Woven Craft: A Case Study among the Dera Weavers of Berhampur City, Ganjam, Odisha

Women have always had a unique relationship with weaving that goes deeper than just making clothes for their household.Historically, Women have been a significant part of weaving craft, whose contribution goes unnoticed, as weaving is an in-house activity for most weavers.The present paper makes a humble attempt to study the role of women in the woven craft among the Dera Weavers of Berhampur City of Ganjam, who are mostly associated with silk weaving traditions & weave the famous Berhampuri Patta Saree.This paper is based on an empirical study & various anthropological methods like observation, interview and case study have been used for collection of primary data in the present study.The finding of the study reveals that the Dera women, along with all household chores, play significant role by assisting their husbands or male members in weaving process of the Berhampuri Patta Saree, as they are engaged in tedious pre & post weaving works, such as dyeing, sizing, piecing and polishing.These works have been unrecognised & unpaid for many decades, due to the patriarchal nature of the Dera society.Dera women do not directly contribute in marketing of the final product, procurement of raw materials and finalization of the designs.Proper implementations of the different govt.schemes are required to address the issues and challenges experienced by Dera women weavers.