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According to the state government report of 2012-2013, there are a total of 1,92,339 weavers and 43,652 handlooms in Odisha. There are 1,171 cooperative societies in 38 clusters. One such cluster is Barpali. Barpali is a town and a notified area committee in Bargarh district of Odisha, known for its handloom weaves. There are about 1,000 handlooms in this part of the state, and weavers here are known for their original geometric ikat prints on Tasar silk and cotton.

Weaving is the primary source of income in Barpali, where the Meher community is involved in this craft. Artisans who use tie-and-dye technique for ikat weaving in Barpali don’t necessarily require a graph paper for designs, unlike Chanderi unless the design is new and intricate. Most of them, due to their several years of experience, just recall one of the designs that have been used for generations and start working on them through mental calculations, and then execute those ideas on the tie-and-dye frame and subsequently the loom. However, this is also a reason why there isn’t too much of experimentation in design.

In Barpali block, each handloom cluster (such as Kusanpuri, Bandhpali and Bagbadi, among others) is located at a distance of five kilometre from the other. While the style of weaving in the different clusters of Barpali is largely the same, there are slight variations in the style of designs and wide difference in their monthly household incomes. While a weaver family earns between Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 15,000 in Kusanpuri, a family only earns about Rs. 6,000 and Rs. 4,000 in Bagbadi and Bandhpali, respectively.

Handloom weavers are facing a stiff competition from print work. Those involved in the latter simply buy a plain white cottan saree from the market, print the design on it and sell it as authentic ikat for as little as Rs. 400, severely damaging the market for handloom ikat sarees, stoles and dupattas.

However, the new generation of weavers is willing to learn to design digitally because they understand that if a variety in designs is created, the demand for the sarees will also increase in the market. They also realise that computer-aided designs will increase accuracy and make weaving a comparatively less time-consuming process.

With this in mind, DEF in partnership with Microsoft initiated ‘DigiKala’ in the cluster in 2015 to digitally empower the weaver community of Barpali and, consequently, increase their livelihood.