“At Saneki fabricthe loom becomes a space for women to build sisterhood and solidarity. It is a space that allows their agency to exercise their cultural, political, legal, economic and environmental rights,” says Anurita P. Hazarika, Director of the Northeast Network.
At Northeast Network, Saneki Weaves is a livelihood initiative that aims to empower rural women in interior Assam to be economically self-sufficient while addressing issues related to women empowerment, including gender-based violence. Weaving therefore becomes a tool for economic empowerment. In most households in rural and peri-rural parts of Assam, it is a learned skill. Traditionally, women weaved primarily for personal consumption, but Saneki’s vision was to use weaving as a tool to help local weavers feel confident and empowered with a skill they have mastered for generations. One of the weavers, Monika Rabha, said: “At first I couldn’t understand anything, I was very confused, but now I can provide for my family, support my son in his education and feel confident.”
Weaving as a traditional practice can be dated back to the 10th and 11th centuries when Pala king Dharma Pal took his weaving community to Sualkuchi in Assam, a small hamlet on the outskirts of Guwahati. However, weaving is not just limited to Saulkuchi but extends across various indigenous groups in Assam who live on the margins, far away from the capitalist, market-driven demand for handlooms.
Photo credit: Northeast Network
In the interiors of the region, a loom can be found in most households. Women often used the loom for their personal needs or used it to assist entrepreneurs and market-oriented agents, who in the process exploited women’s skills by underpaying and overusing their skills. Through intermediaries and entrepreneurs, the weaving industry often became a place of exploitation. They set up a weaving community, visited the villages with their designs, picked up the finished product and in the end paid the weavers very little.
This systematically undervalues the women of the weaving community, turning them into passive contributors and denying them fair compensation and autonomy over their skills. This suggests a hierarchy between the manufacturers and the retailers who would sell the products as handmade without acknowledging the work of the women behind the products. Even though women weave the products, the training to decide on price, design patterns and autonomy in sales is rarely in the hands of women, explains Hazarika. For example, if the market price of a gamusa (cotton stole) is 50 rupees, a woman’s labor would be paid between 5 and 10 INR. Women’s lack of knowledge about market prices contributes to their exploitation by intermediaries.
Photo credit: Northeast Network
Recognizing this gap, Saneki created a space that allows rural weavers (traditional and interested) to have control over their product. Through their grassroots mobilization and training, traditional weavers have been equipped with the knowledge of this Handloom (dimensions and color combinations to name a few), market price and the wages for their work while being trained to exercise their agency to speak for themselves and the needs of the community.
For Monika Rabha, it is a matter of pride that she was able to explain her creation to customers and visitors at exhibitions outside Assam. Her identity as a weaver explaining the process of weaving to customers from outside the state gave her a surreal feeling as this was the first time she interacted with people from outside her region to explain products indigenous to her culture. She shares this with a broad smile. Women leaving their homes and going to local haats (local markets) and melas give them a sense of recognition and respect – something that has been made invisible by the passive treatment by most middlemen and entrepreneurs.
Photo credit: Northeast Network
Over time, this economic independence develops in them the negotiation skills that are crucial to asserting their self-esteem. Parijat Borah, the community activist at Saneki Weaves, shares that women hold meetings together to advocate for their strengths, address concerns about fair pay and provide evidence for better pay. While the manager of Sereki, a 30-year-old family-run collective, shares shares, weavers ensured that they received a sufficient advance to begin work, thereby demonstrating that they knew the value of their skills and the market demand for the product. This not only shifts the autonomy of middlemen and intermediaries to women, but also gives power back to them, who now understand not only the process of product production, but also the market and consumer needs.
Through her initiative, Saneki creates a safe space for women, including women who do not weave, to come together and discuss the needs of their community. Deepali Baidew (Baidew – sister in Assamese) says, “Currently, we are working on organic farming in our village so that we can be self-sufficient.” The local, grassroots leadership model helps women exercise their rights and agency in a way they know, rather than learning something completely foreign to them. This process subsequently helped the community to increase rural income and in many ways to change gender relations: men took part in the weaving process, helped women in the finishing of products, and also assisted them in household chores.
Photo credit: Northeast Network
While their empowerment is evidence of their freedom of choice, financial independence also means that they are trained to open bank accounts and have control over their income. At the local level, the weavers felt increasingly empowered but face structural challenges in reaching banks to set up their bank accounts as they are located far away. This points to the institutional and infrastructural inaccessibility of women, which limits their mobility and security. However, over time, they learned to cycle to the bank to deposit or withdraw cash, underscoring the women’s resilience and adaptability to and overcoming situational challenges. Resilience can be celebrated here, but this comes at the expense of women who risk being uncertain and demanding informed political decisions.
Through a traditional skill, weavers find a path to their independence and ambition. Xeuti Rajbongshi, a new generation weaver from Sereki, says: “I feel good that I can earn something from this. I save a little for my son’s education, keep some for my family and spend a little on myself. I don’t know that much, but with the little that I have learned in the last three to four years, I feel good that I can earn something.” While weavers with this skill become independent, it is also observed that they tend to prioritize the economic well-being of their families and put their own needs first. This highlights the deeply rooted patriarchal expectations of a woman to be the caregiver and often trivializes her own needs. Such a phenomenon often makes the concept of choice ambiguous. It is debatable how much choice an economically independent woman has in a patriarchal social environment. It took many Saneki awareness sessions to make the women realize that their personal needs are just as important as their families.
Saneki and Sereki emphasize that for a woman the loom is not just a skill but an arena that allows them to build sisterhood, solidarity and autonomy. As they weave, they weave their way to their hopes and desires. Saneki’s local livelihood model with Sereki’s weavers provides insight into how weaving and the loom become a site of economic empowerment, while underscoring that empowerment is an ongoing, sustained effort that goes beyond income generation and gradually brings about systemic change, transforming gender attitudes, relationships and norms. Creating a space that contributes to women’s empowerment is a collaborative effort involving multiple stakeholders, and a woman can realize her full economic independence when coupled with broader systemic change.
Antara Buzarbaruah is a Fellow of the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), EWLP Cohort 6 – ILSS Alumni, independent researcher, certified sexuality educator and gender equity expert. She has more than 10 years of experience developing and implementing programs focused on empowering adolescent girls and preventing violence against women. Her work includes research, advocacy and community engagement in Assam, Jharkhand and Karnataka – with the aim of restoring gender-equal spaces. She is currently researching the intersection between visual culture and women. Among her publications, she co-authored a white paper highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive sex education for children in schools and published an article in Tarshi on sex education and the role of stakeholders in delivering it.
