Basket Weaving and plates

Gharwasra is a very small village in Bilaspur District of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is controlled by the Gharwasra Panchayat and is located approximately 31 km towards west from head quarters Bilaspur,19 Kilometres from Ghumarwin and86 KM from the State capital Shimla. Sundar Nagar,Nangal , Hamirpur, Rupnagar are some of the near by Cities to Gharwasra. Hamirpur District Bijhri is in the North. Bakroa which is 5 km , Daslehra and Bhakra which is 8 km, Lehri and Saloha is which are 11 km are the nearby villages to Gharwasra. Gharwasra is surrounded by Jhandutta and Ghumarwin Tehsil towards East , towards East , Una Tehsil towards west and the Anandpur Sahib Tehsil towards farther south.

Gharwasra is known for its Basket weaving out of which they produce baskets, boxes, and other storage items/ utensils and the Pattal craft which are plates made out of huge leaves of Palmyra palm which is known as “taad” in hindi. Government has provided the villagers with machines to heat press the leaves and stitch them from the top to make plates. These plates are usually sold during marriages and other ceremonies.

BASKET WEAVING

The process of basket weaving usually involves slicing this pieces of phloem of the local bamboo bark is approximately of 1-1.5 cm. The bamboo collection is usually done by the males. The males travel to the local forests, explore the flora and collect all the usable bamboo. Afterwards, the sliced bamboo is weaved by both the men women and sometimes children of their families to make baskets and storage boxes. These bamboo utensils usually is used to store warm rice and chapaties during their meals like dinner. Sometimes, the bamboo baskets are usually painted with bright hues of pink, blue or orange which are obtained by the acrylic paints or artificial inks. Pattal includes the same process. Usually males go to the local forests and collect huge Palmyra leaves in bulk. They climb over the trees and pluck them one by one. Palmyra trees are located deep in the forests, so sometimes it takes the artisans 2-4 days to return back to their villages. After their return, women press the leaves via their hands and hand sew them from the top. These days government of Himachal Pradesh and the rotary club has provided legal aids to the local artisans to continue this craft. These machines were introduced in July 2016 to increase the productivity of the Pattal craft. The machines have two metallic plates at top and bottom which are used to press atleast 5-7 leaves together. These can be stitched together on the machines afterwards. Each stack consists of 100 plates which are sold at 200-250Rs. These plates must be used with 15 days otherwise they rot and turn black in colour due to fungal infestation. According the workers people still prefer to buy handmade pattals as they are considered pure for ceremonies and weddings.

Man holding Pattal Plates in Gharwasra, Leaves for plates, The artisan of pattals Kishan Kumar, photographed by Khush Kakkar