Financial unviability affects Lambani traditions in Gajendragad taluk ghagra-cholis

By Yukta Mudgal

Chandri never stitched Lambani clothes but wears them every day. To her, money matters more than conserving her culture. In Gajendragad taluk of Gadag district, Lambanis, the community Chandri belongs to, are in a minority but the most visible people because of their colourful clothes and accessories. Their culture is fading because of very many reasons.

Chandri lives with her husband and two children in a 20x20 house. Her husband who earns Rs 200 to Rs 250 a day by cleaning tables in a nearby eatery, said the house is ancestral and the only asset they have. Twenty years ago, the couple used to live in Latur, Maharashtra, making a living by digging earth for to lay phone cables.

Asked why she doesn’t care about preserving her culture, she replied that she and her husband used to receive a monthly old-age pension of Rs 1,000 from the Karnataka government, but for the past four years, they have not got any help.

Sandur’s Lambani clothes received a GI tag, but in Gajendragad, there is no such tag. Around 1,000 families live in

Gajendragad’s Lambani Thanda. As colorful as their attire are their houses, which have comparatively cooler rooms that are painted sky blue and white. Shop owners and tailors who sell traditional Lambani clothes suffer losses every year. One such shop owner, Andappa Shivappa Rathod, said he sells one ghagra-choli for Rs 2,000.