Amazon has signed an MoU with the Telangana Department of Handlooms and Textiles to help handloom clusters in Warangal, Pochampally. As the number of weavers has increased over the years sales haven’t gone up proportionally. Warangal has been making durries that use cotton and jute for 40 years. Durries have kalamkari patterns on them. Warangal durries or rugs have been famous for many reasons such as they are made using vegetable colours, and are washed in flowing water after the printing process.

Pitta Ramulu was also the first weaver to get a national award, he had won the ‘National Handloom Award’ for 2015. Ramulu’s durries can be now found on Amazon.Ramulu is hoping the number of orders increases. Orders haven’t picked up much. So far, he has got a few orders through Amazon.

As per the Handloom Export Promotion Council, Warangal has been a long-standing centre for durries and 80 per cent of the handwoven durries sold in European and American markets are woven in India. In March 2016, the Telangana State Handicrafts Development Corporation tied up with Amazon India to sell local hand-made ‘Golkonda’ handicraft products. Many weavers are also registered on the India Handmade Bazaar, a portal sponsored by the Government of India, which also sells Indian handlooms and handicrafts.

This is only one amongst the many initiatives that have been picked up to get more handicrafts and handlooms online and available to a larger group of people, including the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited, a PSU under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Currently, there are about 24 weaver associations and societies who have registered on Amazon to sell their wares.