Five decades ago, as a guileless 10-year-old school dropout wandering among the weaving communities in Tamilnadu, P. Gopinathan never thought that he would one day bring fame to his village, and rejuvenate his state’s handloom sector. His place of birth, Manjavilakom, a tiny coastal strip of land in the south-western end of Kerala, is today widely known for handloom cloth manufacturing. Thousands of women in this hamlet spin and weave in symphony, with Gopinathan as the master weaver.

On a recent sunny morning, clad in a simple white shirt and dhoti, the 64-year-old man strolled through the sprawling compound of Ecotex Handloom. In a span of 40 years, the seven-acre campus has developed slowly and steadily. Women weavers are making Kerala-style sarees, with a variety of borders. As it is ‘Medom’ – the month of festivals and weddings in Kerala, traditional rugs are in great demand. The clatter of the looms, which has been setting the rhythm of their life for three decades, fills the air.

Gandhian is the master-weaver of Kerala’s handloom industry.

A few people, even in Kerala, know that a remarkable variety of Kerala sarees, mundus and shirts come from the Ecotex consortium. The consortium is owned by 27 Mahila Samajams and supports 1,800 families. None of this would have happened without Gopinathan. Adversities, debts, threats from power-looms, age – nothing can stop this man, whose brainchild is today the beacon of hope for six panchayats.

He narrates the story of his life in his usual jovial tone. Born in a weaver’s family, as the seventh among 10 children, “... it was poverty all around. My father, who wove clothes for royal families, could not provide for us.” Discontinuing studies in the 6th grade, he left for nearby Nagercoil in search of a job. After a year of fruitless wandering, he reached Madurai, where he learned the intricacies of setting up looms. This was followed by a brief stint in Salem.

At 23, the death of his father brought him back to Kerala. Poverty forced him to take up odd jobs. Deciding to continue weaving, he started his work with renewed purpose in 1968, with three looms in a shack, raised on a small patch of land given by a Tamil Nadu-based weaver. He supplied products at small profits, to a wholesale merchant at Balaramapuram, near Thiruvananthapuram. Around that time, he married Subhashini, who was also a weaver. “It was in this same shack that I worked and raised my children,” beams the sexagenarian.

“In those days, there were very few incentives to initiate a start-up,” he muses. So, it was up to him alone, to steer his mission. Deciding to offer local residents free training in the art of weaving, he visited homes in his village, after his working hours. “Women in those days were denied education, and subjected to domestic drudgery, and families were struggling with meagre earnings and the drunkenness of men.” He created awareness among the women to step out and live life with self-esteem, without compromising on their other responsibilities.  He walked several miles every day, convincing the villagers, often facing hostility. He taught many people from his village, and the nearby Panchayats, the art of weaving, free of charge.

Around that time, Gopinathan was also elected a Panchayat member.

As the early 70s were witnessing the severe exploitation of women workers in the handloom sector, by middlemen and private loom owners, he organised them, to form Mahila Samajams – offering them the use of his plot of land and his looms. Udaya Mahila Samajam was formed in 1972, with four looms and 25 women.

By 1979, when the endeavour grew to 27 samajams and 400 looms, Gopinathan gifted the samajams with 80 cents of land, which he had bought with his own savings. The year also saw their evolving into the Ecotex Handloom Consortium. Talking about his inspiration, he says: “Didn’t A K Gopalan teach us to tackle unemployment by forming workers co-operative societies, by running Indian Coffee Houses?’’ The union was a great morale booster for women who had never entered the gates of a school.

Today, the samajams are self-governing bodies with 1,800 women workers in 900-odd looms. The Textile Development Commission has given significant financial aid for Ecotex. But a lot has come from Gopinathan’s pocket, including the land and many looms. He continues to teach the craft of weaving, and participates in daily production, from which he still earns daily wages, as a simple worker.

Gopinathan has not stopped developing Ecotex. He started a weaving school in 2004, in the same plot of land, to offer free training to women from backward communities. Another 14 cents of land was donated last year to the district Panchayat, to start a weaving school, again aimed at the backward communities. Next on his agenda is a general school, imparting training in weaving, to tackle the labour crunch in the sector.

“Gopinathan’s contribution in tackling the challenges in the state’s handloom sector, especially ‘employee retention’, is remarkable” says M Satheesan, General Secretary, State Handloom and Textiles Department. Gopinathan was instrumental in getting the state government to pass a bill in 2010, ensuring a minmum of 100 days’ wages per year, and maternity leave with a month’s wages for coir, khadi and handloom workers.

He knows it’s not easy to thrive in the industry facing stiff competition from power looms. “They pass off their products as handloom at lower prices,” says Gopinathan. He speaks lightly of the threats he has received from mechanized loom owners, for giving workers higher wages.

His entire life is devoted to the lives of others, overlooking his personal worries. “God will take care of the rainy days,” he says with complete confidence. His son G. Ganapathi, General Manager, C-DIT, Thiruvananthapuram, says he is “proud to be Gopinathan’s son”.

Gopinathan’s efforts have not gone unnoticed – the ‘Padma Shri’ came to him in 2007. Among a host of other awards, he has received the ‘The Real Hero 2010 Award’ from CNN-IBN for women’s empowerment, and the Harmony Foundation’s Silver of the Year Award in 2010.

“The loom of life never stops at night. The pattern we were weaving when the sun went down will continue when it comes up in the morning,” says Gopinathan.

By Nisary mahesh