A handloom lover’s delight, the Pochampally saree is a study in warp and weft. As delightful as the weave is, making each piece is extremely laborious and draining. Young girls and women weavers spend six to eight hours every day, making patterns (ASU) for the sarees, moving their hand 18000 times to set over 25 kilometers of thread. And this process results in just two sarees.

How We Want To Help
Jaypore is dedicated to reviving and showcasing the best crafts from India. Our constant endeavor is to impact the lives of the weaver, the dyer, the embroiderer and all those people who make magic with their hands. To mark Women’s Week, we have decided to contribute 2% of our sales to fund the Laxmi ASU machine that improves the lives of Pochampally saree weavers by automating the pattern making process. Which means that every time you buy a product from Jaypore this week, you not only buy a piece of India’s crafts heritage, you also help a weaver.

About The Man and His Innovation
Mallesham Chintakindi, a class 6 dropout belongs to a family of Pochampally weavers in Telangana and used to watch his mother make the saree patterns (ASU). It caused her immense pain; the work was repetitive and unyielding. To ease her misery, Mallesham spent eight years developing a machine, which he named after his mother (Laxmi). It not only reduces the manual labor required but also increases the number of sarees that can be made. Young girls and women would earlier spend 5-6 hours making patterns, which left them with no time for even school. With this machine, the pattern making time is reduced to just 1.5 hours.

Mallesham has received massive acclaim for this machine, including the Padma Shri by the Government of India and has been recognized by President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is a TED Talk speaker and FORBES listed his innovation as one of the seven powerful rural innovations.

Because of his dedication, 800 machines have already been sold but small weavers find it very hard to pay Rs 25000 for one machine. At best, they can only afford to pay 10% of the cost. Jaypore, in collaboration with www.fueladream.com, is delighted to contribute to the rest of the 90% needed for these machines and hopes to reach as as many women weavers as possible.

Join our endeavor on www.jaypore.com