Located just nine kms from Patradevi, the Maharashtra border, is a small hamlet off the Goa-Mumbai highway which leads to an unending region of greenery. But a small winding road, with a fresh carpet of tar, tells us there are some inhabitants in that area along the flowing water body, known as Uganar.
Small thatched roofs, homes along the hill and kids standing on a retaining wall with fishing lines are all we see. There’s an excavator drilling along the road side shoulder aiding in building retaining walls across the Puroscade village. We’re told to wait at the village square which sports a plaque stating Mahatma Jyotibai Phule Nagar.
Along comes Yeshwant Gaonkar, who gave us directions all along the highway and has promised to gather the village women folk at a small makeshift hall under construction.
“This under-construction hall is our classroom but we have packed all the bamboo weaving material because of the monsoons and we’ve let out this hall for the labourers of the PWD who are constructing that retaining wall along the village to prevent further erosion,” explained Yeshari Gaonkar, 62-year-old in the Bamboo weaving trade.
Similar to Yeshari are another 20 women gathered to tell us their story and the difficulties they face in the unorganized sector of bamboo weaving.
Valmati Gaonkar, one of the younger women shows us the rice sieves, baskets, mats, partitions, deco and dolphins all made from bamboo weaving. She explains to us how in the village it was an age-old tradition to use bamboo in making household articles.
“In our village, there’s not much to do, except farming, agriculture, plucking cashews, a little dairy work and the tradition of bamboo weaving. Nowadays, few of our men have government jobs or travel to Tuem, Tivim, Karaswada or even Panjim to work. But our women find it hard to find employment and the only avenue is to sell vegetable on the highway but nobody stops and our village folk also are moving away from agriculture,” explains Valmati Gaonkar.
Valmati tells us that besides raising children and cooking, women in Puroscade have not much work to do. Hence they started two self-help groups and one with 17 women and one with ten women.
“We have a Jyotirao Phule Mahila Mandal and a Sanjeevani Mahila Mandal of 10 and 17 women respectively. We use this under construction, not yet plastered or tiled hall to work. We know bamboo weaving so through the South Asian Foundation we had instructors come and teach us new designs and ways to weave to enhance our age-old skills. Also the whole four month training encouraged younger women and our daughters or daughters-in-law to also take this up,” explains Rajeshwari Gaonkar. The entire hamlet of 20 odd families is all Gaonkars and related.
Rajeshwari also explains to us that bamboo weaving involves a lot of intricacies from carving, slitting the bamboo to appropriate thickness to weave or entwine or hold together. And that the skill is passed down generations.
Another Sheilata Gaonkar points out that it’s just not bamboo that they use which is grown in the village or sourced within Pernem but they also use a particular grass available at the river bank and can be pulled out only after the monsoon to dry and use in making of their handicrafts
But Yeshahshri, the senior most of the 60 plus women who weave with their knives and dried bamboo shows us how most of their art is lying unsold and getting damp in the monsoon.
“Basically we weave for ourselves. Make a mat to use, make a sieve for the kitchen, make a basket for the fields but to sell we need bulk orders right. The self-help groups in Panjim have a Mahila mandal stall at the Panjim Bus stand and they sell sweets, savories and clothing,” explains Yeshahshri.
Yeshahshri hopes the government or their local MLA understands their art and also gets them a space at Mapusa market or at least Pernem town to market and sells their goods. Or she hopes that Aparanta would take their bamboo-weaved handicrafts which would not just bring them an income but also encourage the younger generation to also weave like them since the youth don’t want to get their hands and feet soiled in agriculture, so at least weave.
So much is their hope of finding people to showcase their work that when Herald met them, they felt we would take their wares places. They even inquired about online shopping options as the younger kids in the hamlet talk about mobiles phones and e-commerce.
Why Mhatma Jyotibhau Phule
It’s interesting or rather curious to know why Mhatma Jyotibhau Phule Nagar is the name of this hamlet. We drove past the palaces of the Visconte de Pernem, met up with Jitendra Deshprabhu, the former MLA and member of the princely family before driving 4kms down to the hamlet. When we chatted with the village folk, they explained to us why Phule Nagar.
“We’re very close to the Maharashtra border and we had a great influence of freedom struggle and freedom stories from the rest of India while Goa was cut-off by the Portuguese. We celebrate 26 January in a big way in the village and even Independence day, where we do puja and raise the National flag. We’re proud of being Indian and that’s why Phule’s name was adopted in naming this Nagar,” explains Laxman Gaonkar busy fishing in the fields for small fish while his women are weaving in their homes.
Banglanatak.com has documented bamboo weaving activity and plans revival
Banglanatak dot com is a social enterprise with a 75-member team that works on culture and development and started in Kolkata in 2000, but now has a presence in other Indian cities including Delhi, Patna and Goa.
Led by Kankan Jyoti Kharghoria and Ankita Biswas who helped us find this tiny hamlet, they have visited ten such small hamlets in Pernem and twenty more across Goa exploring tribal, culture and folk dance. They have documented the bamboo weaving activity in Puroscade despite the language barrier and now plan revival by seeing that the younger generation goes through a proper training to learn bamboo weaving.
Accredited with ICH 2003 convention of UNESCO, with Special Advisory Status with UN ECOSOC, partner to UNWTO and National partner to UNESCO, the NGO set up shop in Benaulim last year in April 2014. Since then their three member teams randomly travel to remote villages and try to find skills, folk culture, music and unique occupations and are studying means to sustain and pass on this information to the next generation.
“We came to Pernem with an Art and Culture government official. Similarly we identified a single lady in Quepem who’s the only lady of her tribe and is 96 years old and knows bamboo weaving. This is an dying art and needs quick revival,” explains Kankan Jyoti, a banglanatak member.