These Fabric Dolls Tell Story Of Resurrection Of A Handloom Village Devastated By Kerala Floods

When the floods hit Kerala last month, Chendamangalam Kaithari, the famed handloom from the state also suffered a major blow.

The small town in Ernakulam District which was home to a number of handloom units was left in shambles after the floods, with a number of manufacturing units and manufactured goods worth crores getting damaged.

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As the state slowly rebuilds itself so is Chendamangalam, with whatever is left after the floods.

And from their resolve to rebuild their lives ¡®Chekutty¡¯ was born!

Derive from two Malayalam words ¡®cheru¡¯ which means dirt and ¡®kutty¡¯ means child, the fabric doll is the story of those who overcame the dirt left behind by the flood.

The dolls were made of the heeps of sarees the weavers had readied just before the rains keeping in mind the Onam festival, which would have meant big business for them.

The idea was conceived and executed by Gopinath Parayil, who works in the Tourism sector and Lakshmi Menon, who is a designer along with the help of volunteers.

The damaged and soiled sarees were collected, cleaned and then made into the cute little dolls which are now being sold at 25 Rupees per piece.

According to them, form just a single six-meter saree, around 360 such dolls can be made. One saree, which would cost around Rs 1,300, will be used to make around 300 dolls and fetch at least Rs 9,000.

"Our aim was to provide support to the weaver at the earliest. And we trained some 15 of them on the very first day to make the dolls. Even today the doll making is a community exercise, on a voluntary basis," Gopinath said.

And with the help of some positive social media campaign, Chekutty took off, quite literally!

The demand was so high that at a point the website crashed due to traffic!

"The payment too is up to the buyers. The base price is Rs 25, they are free to pay any amount beyond that. But, with the response we have received so far, I am sure that people are willing to pay more for Chekutty. We are struggling to keep up with the demand, which is coming from even outside India. If the response continues to be like this we will soon run out of sarees," Gopinath said.

Just like not two Chekuttys are identical, the dolls too are multipurpose and can be used for various purposes.

"Chekutty can adorn your wall, your bag, your car, keychain, your dress, trousers, trolleys or be an installation at home. Chekutty is to tell the story of this flood, it's heroes, valour, and togetherness in which we overcame the flood and landslides," Gopinath explained.

According to those behind the initiative, Chendamangalam had suffered losses worth Rs 52 lakhs including Rs 21 lakhs worth clothes and Rs 8 lakh worth loom and machinery.

With the sale of the dolls, they aim to recover at least a portion of it.

"Even if we manage to sell produce from just 200 sarees, we will raise 18 lakhs, compared to the 2.6 lakhs by selling good 200 sarees," Gopinath said.