A handful of women chatter inside a nondescript garage-like structure, covered with tin sheets that shield the place from the weather, while sounds of wooden handloom machines rend the air, and these ‘wives’ weave shawls, sweaters, shirts and the like.

Fifty-odd women, some (seniors) in their middle age have been eking out a living and supporting their husbands in making ends meet at home. Welcome to the Kalimpong Weavers Cooperative Society, which is struggling in its effort to help other women improve their financial lot.

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It all began in 1986 when a group of women were trained to weave by staffers of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. A full three-month training over, these women formed the ‘weaver’s society’ and started weaving and selling their products.

Presently at Melli Road, the women now look forward to getting a plot of land where they can start constructing a better place for themselves with aid from the Khadi Gramodhyog.

The land where the garage stands apparently belongs to Christian missionaries and it is learnt that the society had approached Nava Ratna Pradhan, the Principal of the Scottish Universities’ Mission Institution (SUMI) school, who is apparently looking after the plots.

It is learnt that Mr Pradhan has given the Society the ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) for the construction of the workshop with their funds.

However, the fund meant for the building, which had come from the KVIC, had to be returned as the stipulated time frame for the construction had expired.

Moreover, later, the Society learnt that they cannot construct a building there as the land cannot be registered.

The society, meanwhile, has one instructor, who earns Rs 10,000 per course, while the helper gets Rs 6000, and the trainees get a stipend of Rs 3000 each, all from the KVIC.

“We have also checked a place below the Morcha party office where there was a bag industry once. The authorities there have asked us to wait for a while,” Bishnu Yonzon, the founder member and instructor of the society, said.

The women get a minimum amount of profit in each item they weave–roughly Rs 50-100 per product, while they make shawls, mufflers, shirts, sweaters and baby suits, among other things.

For marketing of their products, they depend on the District Information and Cultural Office (DICO), which helps them take products to expos. The products are also kept in the Science Centre, from where tourists carry them home as souvenir from Kalimpong.

It is learnt that the Kolkata Handloom Textile used to send Rs 15-20,000 to the Society per month till 2007, while the same stopped after that for reasons unknown.

“We are here to support women for their livelihood, a single person’s income is not sufficient to run a family. Children need to go to school, and we know we spend Rs 100 in buying onions and tomatoes, so think how expensive it is to run a house for a mother or a wife,” lamented Ms Yonzon.

Interestingly, NGOs like the Hill Social welfare Society had trained women twice in batches after 2007, and it is learnt that 88 women are officially trained till date.

Next to the garage, they had a small space where they had build the foundation for the construction of a building. “We spent around Rs 4 lakhs in building the foundation, while we could not go further, as there were other immediate needs like buying wool, paying electricity bills, and paying wages for the women,” Ms Yonzon said.

She further says that they need support as other women too are interested to earn and that they can’t accommodate everyone in the garage which is already very congested.