No more Bathukamma sarees for Telangana’s poor women?

The Bathukamma saree orders were also a blessing in disguise for weavers of Telangana. As a means to provide regular employment and ensure better income, orders for Bathukamma sarees were given to them

Hyderabad: The Congress government’s attempts to do away with schemes introduced by the previous BRS government, and in turn wipe out whatever imprints were left by former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on the lives of the people of Telangana, might deprive lakhs of poor women in the State of the Bathukamma sarees that they were getting for free from the government for the last six years.

The distribution of sarees, known as the Bathukamma saree scheme, was a crucial part of the women’s nine-day celebration of the floral festival, which reflects Telangana’s culture. With the BRS government promoting the Bathukamma festival in a big way as part of its efforts to pass on crucial aspects of Telangana culture to future generations, the KCR regime had launched the distribution of Bathukamma sarees to poor women as a gift from 2017. The idea was to ensure that the women celebrate the festivities with joy, without having to worry about money to buy new sarees. Every year, nearly one crore sarees in nearly 30 designs and 20 different colours were distributed to women across the State. Experts from the National Institute of Fashion Technology were also roped in to design the sarees.

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The Bathukamma saree orders were also a blessing in disguise for weavers in the State. As a means to provide regular employment and ensure better income, orders for Bathukamma sarees were given to weavers in Sircilla, Karimnagar and Warangal. Apart from weavers, ancillary workers including labourers, hamalis, auto-rickshaw drivers and even traders benefited from the scheme. However, with the saree orders not being given as usual after the Congress came to power, weavers have been appealing to the State government to place the orders so that they could eke out a livelihood and also ensure that the sarees reached the women beneficiaries in time for the Bathukamma festivities. However, the orders are yet to be placed.

Though Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy announced on Monday that the State government would distribute two sarees each to 63 lakh women Self Help Group members (about 1.3 crore sarees) every year, he did not make it clear whether other poor women would also get the sarees. That is not all. Though the announcement was made, the government is yet to place any orders with the weavers for even the sarees promised for the SHG members. With hardly a month left for Bathukamma festivities to begin, it appears that the Bathukamma saree scheme has been shelved.

This is being read by the Opposition along with Revanth Reddy’s declaration in the Assembly that he would take up the responsibility of wiping out the imprints of the BRS government. If the saree scheme being shelved is part of this political act of vengeance, it is the poor women of Telangana who stand to lose.