Chenetha Santha - Handloom revival initiative         

Textile industry is second only to the agricultural sector in terms of workforce and employment potential. Only few States managed to put in place policies that helped modernise and integrate the production processes. Powerlooms in Maharashtra and Gujarat and Tamil Nadu managed to survive the market-centred approach.

The traditional weavers of two Telugu states have neither the means to invest in modern technology nor market-savvy master weavers to help them adapt to changing consumer tastes. With their products becoming uncompetitive in the market, stocks mounted, of work began to decline and the weavers have been facing joblessness, mounting debt, starvation and, consequently, death. 

TV9 as part of its CSR activity has been supporting handloom weavers market Chenetha Santha since three years. Environmentalist, documentary filmmaker and farmer, Saraswati Kavula happened to visit a handloom cooperative society in Koyalagudem village in Nalgonda district in 2015. After learning the hardships of handloom weavers and the amount of effort they put in throughout the day producing the fabric which is eco-friendly, healthy for people of these climatic conditions, she thought she should market their products directly to customers.

Saraswati started Chenetha Santha under Chenetha Chaitanya Vedika platform in 2015 with an intention of lending a helping hand to handloom weavers by making them sell their products directly to customers.The bi-monthly santha or fair is organised for three days at Nagarjuna Nagar Community Hall,  Ameerpet in Hyderabad. Consumers are given the opportunity to buy authentic handloom and Khadi directly from weavers.

TV9 believes that the time-tested skills of our artisans and craftsmen should be respected and propagated and their craft sustained. TV9 has been promoting the cause of handloom weavers by giving free scrolls, promos and coverage. With constant weaver interaction we have been bringing out their internal stories. Poverty stricken weavers have come out in the open and spoke about how they faced losses between cooperative societies and powerlooms.

Exquisite handloom textiles @ Chenetha Santha - TV9

Through these Santhas the weavers are able to earn and interact directly with their customers.