In its own home, khadi spins out of fashion

But this is not a simple story of unemployment and poverty. For, the weavers, who are voters in the Surendranagar (SC) constituency, have to also battle caste bias that manifests itself in job opportunities that are denied or segregation at work place.

Thousands of weavers in Surendranagar district used to account for about 80 per cent of khadi sold through various outlets in Gujarat for decades.

Unskilled and discriminated against for being low caste, the community laughs away the prime minister’s promise of jobs for one crore youth. ‘‘Sloganeering, Hindutva..feel good…matters only for five per cent population. Politicians don’t come to us because they are afraid of facing our anger,’’ says Laljibhai Solanki, a 33-year-old postgraduate.

‘‘The upper caste villagers turned us away when we tried selling vegetables,’’ says 70-year-old Narsinhbhai Vankar, who returned to the village to take up weaving 18 years ago after a textile mill that employed him closed down in Ahmedabad.

Kalabhai Rathod, 55, claims his wife died because he did not have money for her treatment. He earns about Rs 500 a month. ‘‘I want to become a mason when I grow up,’’ declares his 14-year-old son Nitin, as the other villagers laugh, narrating stories of corruption, nepotism and casteism that they think come between jobs and them.

‘‘They don’t drive us away openly, but the moment we are asked our caste we know it’s time to leave,’’ says Mansukh Solanki, 32, of his and other weavers’ experiences.

Ten kilometres away is Ankevalia, a village close to Limbdi, that showcases the plight of the weavers. Unmindful of the first political meeting in the village, rows and rows of women file past the audience, carrying pots to a well, a kilometre away, an endless activity that keeps them busy for hours.

Most men idle because they no more get work from khadi centres. At the public meeting, they listen carefully and exult when the Bahujan Samaj Party speaker spews venom at upper castes, promising them end of ‘‘anuwad” in three years. He details how Mayawati made life difficult for Raja Bhaiyya, a Thakur, and they all clap. ‘‘If they try to bribe you, accept the money for they siphon off government money but vote for the BSP,’’ the speaker tells the crowd of barely 100-odd weavers. They laugh and nod every time he talks of ‘‘us’’ and ‘‘them.’’

Meeting over, Mahesh Vania, 30, gives a clue why he was happy when the upper castes were being criticised. His friend was driven away when he asked for a job at a diamond cutting unit owned by a Rajput in Limbdi, about six kilometres away.

‘‘What’s your caste?’’ he was asked and told, ‘‘Tamara mate jagya nathi (there is no place for you).’’ Mahesh is among the lucky ones who have managed jobs at diamond cutting units but says he has his lunch at a separate place. He claims upper caste workers get better diamonds to process and earn up to Rs 200, while scraps that ensure about Rs 50 in wages come weavers’ way.

More than 100 families from the village have already migrated to cities such as Ahmedabad and Rajkot in search of jobs. A spinning mill that employed about 200 people closed down seven years ago, but what cost the weavers dearly was khadi’s fall from grace ‘ever since the BJP government came to power’. ‘‘They deliberately allowed khadi to die because they want to weaken us further and rule over us like they did for ages,’’ says a villager.