The dwindling lace industry

When I was flipping the pages of my childhood albums, I noticed quite a few snaps in which I wore dresses with lace work or smocking. And they looked really pretty on me! 🙂 I remember my parents getting those dresses from CSI Lace industry when I was young. So when I went home recently, I asked my mother if the lace industry still existed because I wanted to pay a visit.

I and my mom went together to the heart of the town where a mighty clock tower stood.  There was an old two storey building near the CSI church with the board “CSI Lace Industry, Nagercoil”. When we went in, I got excited at the sight of a woman knitting the lace. The woman had a huge pillow over which she was knitting the lace. There were 16 rods in groups of four and thread was wound over the rods. Several pins which were pierced on the pillow were used to hold the worked lace. The lady kept twisting, turning and shuffling the bunches of rods to knit the lace. This kind of work is called pillow lace or pin lace. The work is so minute and intricate that she took about 10 minutes to do just one tiny pattern. To make a laced table top, it takes a few months’ time! Since this work involves a lot of workmanship, the labour charge is pretty high.

Later I interacted with a supervisor in the industry to enquire about the history of this industry. The lace and the embroidery industries were set up by the C.S.I. Kanyakumari Diocese to provide employment opportunities for women belonging to the fishermen community. Being a coastal hamlet, the fishermen constitute a major part of my district’s population. These fishermen limit themselves to fishing only and during off seasons, they are left jobless. Since lace and embroidery work do not require any educational background, the Diocese provide opportunities for the illiterate women to uplift the livelihood of their families. Most of the women belong to the age group of 18 – 45 years. The aged women find it difficult to stitch as they have to strain their eyes so much.

Over the last 15 years, the women have started to stitch handbags too. Off late, there are few college girls who come to this industry every evening after their college hours to learn lace and embroidery work. They stitch dresses with lace work for babies which help them earn a little while they study.

However, not many people appreciate such work and are not willing to pay a seemingly heavy price. Trust me, the work done by these women is so amazing and is definitely worth it. With the demand dwindling for such hand-made lace, these women are finding it difficult to make their ends meet. If the trend continues, we might even lose this wonderful art of knitting lace. As I left the place, I decided to make some change to their lives by not just purchasing few materials, but also writing a blog post to recognize their work!