Mobile textile traders return after 10 years

The villagers were surprised at the arrival of the weavers ahead of the festival season. They claimed that the mobile textile carts were missed over the past few years and they had to visit textile showrooms in the city for purchasing clothes.

“Now that these vendors have returned, we can get good clothing directly from the weavers at an affordable price. This is beneficial for the elders in the villages as they find it difficult to travel,” said S Saraswathi, a member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights from Mahabalipuram.

Until a decade ago, the handloom weavers from across the State travelled to the city suburbs in pushcarts attached to scooters and mopeds to sell their merchandise directly to the customers. Like most traditional practices, this too stopped with the setting up of textile showrooms in the suburban areas.

Now, the villagers in and around Mahabalipuram and Kalpakkam are a happy lot as their old tradition is back.

As many as 25 handloom weavers from Villupuram, Vellore, Arani and Salem have resumed the mobile textile shops in the villages. A vendor from Vellore claimed that they did not want the old tradition to fade away.

Chinnaswamy of Villupuram, who also runs a mobile textile shop in Mamallapuram, said, “There has been a good response from the villagers.”