“The original Chekutty dolls, made of Chendamangalam handloom, will have a trademark and a small write up attached to it. Other than the basic steps on making, the painting, touch-ups and decoration is all up to the individual doll maker, she said.Chendamangalam is a traditional handloom weaving cluster located over 35 km away from Kochi. The money is directly credited to the Society&China faux suede leather39;s account,” he told PTI.The entrepreneur said the beauty of Chekutty dolls is the crowdsourcing.Ravaged looms and bundles of destroyed fabric, which were all ready for Onam sales and tears of hundreds of weavers who had toiled hard for months to make them ready persuaded the entrepreneurs to find out a sustainable solution for them.
An active participant in the flood relief work, 42-year-old Lakshmi came to know about the plight of the weavers from her friend Gopinath Parayil, a tourism entrepreneur.”The scenes at the village shook both of us. I am so happy to see that our doll has now emerged as the mascot of Kerala, which braved the devastating floods,” she said.. We had no option but to think of something to bring back the smiles on their faces. But she represents each one of us who survived the floods. We plan to do the trademarking exercise with the support of over 500 volunteers at the Maharaja’s College campus in Kochi on September 30,” Lakshmi added. At least 360 odd dolls can be made out of a six-metre saree.The entire amount raised through sales of Chekutty would go to livelihood programmes envisaged by the handloom weavers’ cooperative society of Chendamangalam, said Lakshmi, who runs ‘Pure Living’, a social enterprise focusing on up-cycled and recycled products.
Ajith Kumar, Secretary, Handloom # Weavers Co-operative Society, Karimpadam in Chendamangalam said they had already received Rs five lakh in their account through the online booking for the ‘chekutty dolls’.”Chekutty has scars. Finally, we came up with the idea of doll making,” Lakshmi said.The soft handmade dolls can be used as a key chain, wall decor or tied to a handbag and would always serve as a reminder of the sacrifices and resurrection of a state which was ravaged by a murderous flood, the entrepreneur added.Lakshmi herself collected soiled sarees from the weavers and trained volunteers.Chekutty has stains.”It’s not made by one person or one organisation. That is much higher than they receive through the sale of saree,” she said.We have only helped them clean the soiled fabric.The Kochi-based IT hub Infopark had adopted the Chekutty dolls’ movement to support its sales. So we had to wash the fabric repeatedly to make them safe for re-use,” she said.
The founders of Chekutty are now getting ready to trademark their unique doll before launching the product officially in the market on October 2 in Kochi.”A normal handloom saree may fetch Rs 1300-1500 in the market.Both Lakshmi and Gopinath shared the idea through social media platforms and invited interested persons to volunteer their services in doll making and the response was immense. We plan to put it up for sale at Rs 25 each,” she said. She took many sarees home, chlorinated and boiled them to disinfect them.Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently came forward supporting the unique initiative. The other things including doll making and sales are being done by the entrepreneurs.The weavers were also happy about the idea as at least their months’ long labour would not go in vain. It can also be read as the kid of Chennamangalam,” Lakshmi told news agency PTI..”Even after chlorination and boiling, the clothes had that stink left by the murky flood waters.So Chekutty can be read as the child who survives the mud and dirt of floods.”That means, dolls fashioned out of a single saree can fetch them up to Rs 9,000.They also created a website, detailing the objective of ‘Chekutty’ dolls. No Chekutty would look alike
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