TEXTILE WANDERINGS - Weavers' Service Centre - Delhi

 One of my recent visits to the Weavers' Service Centre (WSC) in Delhi to get some information on Master Craftsmen awardees proved an eye opener to the vast potential and vast information source that the Weavers' Service Centre opened under the aegis of the DC Handlooms is meant to be a centre to disseminate information, collect, collate propagate weaving, the base has been to develop a vast repertoire on the textile especially the handloom tradition of the country. There are 28 Weavers' Service Centre established across the country. The country is broadly divided into four zones – North, South, East and West. There is one nodal WSC (headquarter) in each zone. Each zone has several WSC representative of the particular State which caters to the weaving centers in that geographical belt. The vastness of the weaving heritage in the country is such that there are weavers in every village assimilating a host of techniques. In the North East, weaving is done nearly in every home. Thus the Zone headquarters become a nodal body to disseminate information, provide a database for technology, techniques, design upgradation of the weavers in that area. Apart from weaving, the other textile crafts dyeing, printing… It is a one stop destination for the weavers to get technical assistance for their profession. There is help in the form of dye procurement, yarns, weaving technology. For example in the South, the main centre is at Chennai and then there are WSCs in Kancheepuram, Salem, Kannur, Bangalore, Hyderabad. Each of these cater to the weaving heritage of their respective areas. The information collated and collected over a period of time is exhaustive.

 

The WSC in Delhi is situated at Bharat Nagar which is near Ashok Nagar, in a place which goes by the name of Bunkar Colony. It was a colony established to house weavers. Today, there are no weavers but it like another residential area. The WSC has two parts – the office which houses all the material and provides technical assistance. There are also sheds / shops let out to carry out weaving. One can see weaving being carried out on jacquard looms as also spinning. Though very few sheds are operational, there are several shops selling handloom products.

 

The WSC in Delhi was set up  in 1978 and it is the headquarters for the 7 zones namely – Delhi, Panipat, Meerut, Varanasi, Chamoli, Jaipur and Srinagar. It is also the extension centre for Kullu (Himachal Pradesh). As per 2010 census, there are over a lakh of looms in this area which are making a whole range of items from sarees, bedsheets, dhurries, stoles, shawls, tweeds… Weaver’s Service Centre is engaged in doing a host of activities from selection of weavers for various Sant Kabir Awards to developing samples for the industry. To be precise the weaving section has skilled weavers who are engaged in developing cloth samples and supplying them to the textile industry as prototype for arranging commercial production. The work is supervised by qualified handloom technologists. Facilities of prototype looms and weaving equipments are available in the section for undertaking such product development activity by using different types of yarns. The section also undertakes improvements in loom and in the processes of weaving.

The processing section brings out shade cards for silk, cotton, jute and wool dyeing. These cards illustrate a number of shades and also give details of method of application of dye stuffs with required technical parameters. New samples are also developed in hand block printing as well as screen printing techniques. All styles of printing like direct, resist, discharges are adopted in printing with synthetic as well as natural dyes. Industry players, designers can avail of these facilities at very reasonable costs. It will also help them work out production time and the cost for production on the handloom. This facility is available at all WSC including those at Varanasi etc.. Apart from this, it is the repertoire of work done for the various Tantuvi exhibition which is exhaustive. They also have a collection of textiles produced under the Vishwakarma and Festival of India series. The project using natural dyes and brocades have some beautiful samples which can be used by the industry and individual designers.

 

The recently launched National Centre for Textile Design (NCTD) offering designs and India Handloom Brand Cell also operate out of the WSC. A visit to the WSC has much to offer in terms of the vast repertoire of what is the Indian legacy of handlooms. There are books, collections, reference material and a wealth of information.

Location - Weavers’ Service Centre, Weavers Colony, Bharat Nagar, Ashok Vihar,  Delhi – 110052.

 

Getting there  - The nearest metro station is Inderlok. It is connected by the Red line. It is also connected by the Green line. From the metro station, the WSC is just a couple of kms away. One can take an auto / cycle rickshaw or a cab using their booking app.