Vasudevan K., 65, was born into a family of coir workers at Aryad, near Alappuzha. His first tryst with the golden fibre at a professional level came when he joined a chaapra (coir products manufacturing unit) as a 12-year-old. He made a steady rise and set up his own production unit attached to his house before he turned 25. Coir doormats and mattings made on handlooms at his unit reached far and wide. His production unit was among the numerous such initiatives which spread the fame of Kerala’s coir handloom products overseas. After running a profitable business for several years, his fortunes, however, started to nosedive and the unit was wound up five years ago due to “financial problems”.
“When I started, it was the heyday of the coir sector. Almost all households here had their own units making doormats, floormats, mattings and so on, mainly for export to Europe and the U.S. among other places. But after enjoying a golden period, the traditional handloom sector started to lose its sheen. The demand for our products waned and orders declined. I think, I have done the right thing by closing down the unit as the sector is going south day by day,” says Mr. Vasudevan, referring to the recent strike by small-scale coir factory owners in Alappuzha and Ambalappuzha taluks, the nerve centre of Kerala’s coir industry, demanding fresh orders for their products to sustain the business. He has since turned to tapioca cultivation to make a living.
