by Charumathi Supraja
The sight of Lambada women seated on pavements and working away at their embroidery is not uncommon in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. As their nimble fingers fly on fabric surfaces, the plain cloths are transformed - sprinkled with mirrors. Ordinary saris, kurtas, blouses, cushion covers, bed covers or lehengas - they all turn into chic ethnic ware that make their way as far as California and Dubai.
These mirror-craft artists sit in small groups on the footpath, near the bus stop, outside a community park or an apartment complex. Needle in hand and head bent to their work, somehow these women never miss a new face. If you stop to look, they will promptly offer: "Rs 40 (US$1=Rs 45) for 100 mirrors, amma!" They switch easily between Telugu and Hyderabadi Hindi. Their own dialect, Goarr (also the name of their root tribe, which has branches in almost all the Indian states) is heavily laced with Telugu, indicating their long association with Andhra Pradesh.
The Tribal Welfare Department, Hyderabad estimates that the Lambadas, also known as Banjaras or Sugalis, are the largest tribal group in Andhra Pradesh. The 1991 Census recorded their population in Andhra Pradesh at 1,641,897, of which 792,738 are female (individual tribe figures from 2001 census have not yet been compiled).
They were originally expert cattle breeders, who sold milk and milk products for a living. Particular about their customs and way of life, Lambadas in rural areas live in colonies of their own, called Tandas, outside the main village - which has often led to their exclusion from development benefits that the main village receives. Lambadas later took to agriculture, but when their lands became uncultivable, abject poverty forced large groups to migrate to cities in search of a living.
Removed from their traditional occupations, Lambada men become daily wage earners or auto drivers, and the women take to embroidery or domestic work.Like the other urban poor, they too would have been quite invisible, had it not been for their bright costumes and chunky silver jewellery. No glossy tourism brochure or advertisement on Andhra Pradesh is complete without Lambada photographs - pictures that conceal the real story, the low literacy levels, for example. The 1961 census estimated that the literacy rate among Lambada men in Andhra Pradesh was 7.6 per cent and among women 1.61 per cent. Thirty years later, the 1991 Census had these literacy rate figures: 24.07 per cent for males and 5.68 per cent for females.
"They've put our photos everywhere and they are all making money. Hum ko kya mila, amma (what did we get)?" asks Rukmini, who has been sewing mirrors on the pavement outside St Anne's College, Mehdipatnam for the last 35 years. She came to Hyderabad as a young bride, about 40 years ago. She used to charge Rs 4 for 100 mirrors when she started off. "I barely had time to eat. My husband never worked and would come home drunk and beat me."
She has two daughters, both married, and two sons. One is "a wastrel, like his father" and the other works in a hotel. "We suffer in the sun, get wet during the monsoon and shiver in the winter on this footpath. My oldest customers are now grandmothers. Some are in Dubai or America, and where are we? In the same place," says a bitter Rukmini, whose left wrist is permanently swollen from sewing.
On an average, Rukmini gets to take home Rs 40-60 everyday. Fifteen members of her family sew and earn at different locations in Mehdipatnam. During the rains, Rukmini's group has permission to work from the portico of a nearby school. Her ambition is to get a loan and put up a small pavement shop where she can expand her work.
Under the Central government's Adivasi Mahila Sashaktikaran Yojana (Empowerment of Tribal Women Programme), Scheduled Tribe women are entitled to individual or group loans on submission of caste and income certificates. "Though these certificates are easy to get, the women are discouraged by their own people from applying. They are told not to get into trouble by stepping into big offices," says I Sujatha, Senior Inspector, Tricor (Tribal Corporation), Hyderabad.
But do the Lambada women even know about these schemes? "The Urban Community Development (UCD) wing of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) sends out its Community Officers to make people aware of these schemes," she says.
A loan is just what Sonee, a second-generation Lambada craftsperson, needs to ensure a better future for her children. She belongs to a Lambada family that did fairly well for some years after starting a Banjara Garments business. Her mother-in-law, Jhamku Bai, set the business rolling when she began making mirror-crafted cloths for the elite Hyderabadi families in the 1950s. A native of Nanded, Maharashtra, Jhamku Bai put the embroidery skills she had picked up from her Naani-Maasi (foremothers) to good use when she came to Hyderabad after marriage.
"Business was so good those days, we could sell at double the cost price. Now we hardly get five to ten per cent profit and even that has to be shared," Jhamku says. "Everybody in my family jumped into my business. My 11 children also helped with the work, so they hardly studied. I used to visit about 100 to 200 houses a month and sell my wares. I got many customers through word of mouth. I visited Russia, Mysore, Bangalore and Ooty during Government-sponsored sales. But now the competition is too much. We barely make enough to eat. Our work is poorer because we need to produce more in lesser time. We sometimes buy printed bed sheets and bedcovers and run a few stitches around the prints."
The Lambada women haven't received the necessary attention, even from the voluntary or NGO sectors. They are often at the mercy of middlemen who promise them loans and disappear with their paltry earnings. Beeramlamma's family recently paid Rs 850 to a person who promised to get her a loan of Rs 1 lakh to put up a shop. They never saw him again.
Ironically, Government sources believe that the Lambadas have not done badly for themselves. They also claim that the Lambadas in urban districts are a very small group. Janardhana Reddy, Deputy Project Officer, UCD, says that two housing colonies were built for the Lambadas in Ravindranagar and Nayaknagar. "They are aware and 90 per cent of them have availed of Government incentives," he asserts.
Officers in the Tribal Welfare Department point out there are schemes aplenty for ST women. There are free hostels for tribal girls from Class 3 to college level, where they are provided free notebooks and Rs 25 per month, as "cosmetic charges, to encourage them to maintain good personal hygiene".
As if belying these claims, Rukmini and Jhamku work swiftly, hoping that, one day, their own lives will shine like the mirrors in their hands.
July 9, 2006
By arrangement with Women's Feature Service
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