Weavers from Thirumazhisai

Thirumazhisai is a suburb of Chennai, India, located in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu.

It’s best known for the brick fields and dhoti weavers, Out of 25 + handlooms, 5 of them were operating when this article was written and sure these will put an end card soon. In a day they have to weave 2 Dothis each, which will cost Rs.300 per unit as a commercial cost, so sure these weavers won’t get more than Rs.100 as their daily wages. The way they use their energy is thumb struck, they have to stand below ground level & use both their legs and hands for the vertical and horizontal movement of the cloth with a rhythm.

Everyone usually take a small smoking break for 2-3 minutes for a single beedi (Cigar) and thats the only other activity.

It was quite shocking that, out of all the poor old men a challenged person also works. He said, no one is willing to take this as a profession, and even 2 of his sons are working as a construction labor at Chennai for a daily wage of 300 INR.

The sad truth is they all weave dothi’s with just an under garment.