00:01It can take almost a full year to make just one of these carpets.
00:07And a thorough wash is one of the last steps.
00:19They're made by Obiti, India's largest producer of handmade carpets.
00:25It makes roughly 350,000 carpets a year.
00:30And almost all of them go to the US.
00:34It supplies brands like Williams Sonoma and West Elm.
00:39One carpet can cost over $12,000.
00:44That's because weavers make most of them by hand, not by knot.
00:58Obiti can reject a carpet for one small mistake, spoiling up to a year of work.
01:11So how does Obiti ensure perfection along the way?
01:16And how did this region become the carpet belt of India?
01:24Obiti is 103 years old.
01:27But people have been weaving carpets across South Asia since at least the 16th century.
01:32That's when Mughal Emperor Akbar brought Persian weavers here to make carpets for his palaces.
01:39Many settled in what's now the Mirzapur-Badohi region in modern-day India.
01:46Today over 3 million people here work in the carpet industry.
01:58Obiti recently made 35,000 square feet of hand-knotted carpets for India's new parliament building in New Delhi.
02:07It took 900 weavers and over 1 million hours of work.
02:13The company dyes all its yarn in-house.
02:17Workers load up machines that can hold up to 880 pounds of yarn.
02:23The batch first goes through a chemical wash.
02:29Then they prepare the dyes, which are made from chemicals and natural ingredients like fruits and bark.
02:39Obiti takes a sample to the lab and runs a series of tests to make sure the color won't rub
02:44off.
02:46Weavers can't get started until they have the map, or nakshah, which they have to follow in granular detail.
02:54Each square represents a knot and a specific yarn color.
03:00The company has its own weaving center, with 224 artisans.
03:05Weavers here use a drum to build the carpet's foundation, or warp.
03:14But some build it by hand, which can take a full day.
03:31Obiti works with over 25,000 local weavers, like Ramlal.
03:39He's been working with the company for about 50 years.
03:53Once the warp is done, he starts laying down the design, thread by thread.
04:04Some of these have over 2 million knots.
04:20And one costly mistake could ruin the whole thing.
04:24Weavers are using the fabric of the fabric.
04:28If the carpet is broken, it's very difficult.
04:34It's very difficult.
04:36Sometimes people don't use the fabric.
04:39It's very difficult.
04:42Company officials inspect the work on each one of Obiti's 5,000 looms, every 15 days.
04:49Once each carpet is finished and approved, weavers deliver it to the factory.
04:57But the work isn't done yet.
04:59Workers use a blowtorch to burn off loose fibers.
05:10Then, teams of washers give the carpet a scrub.
05:16Everything starts with a water dousing.
05:20A chemical treatment gets rid of dust.
05:26A chemical treatment gets rid of dust.
05:28A chemical treatment gets rid of dust.
05:39A chemical treatment gets rid of dust.
05:41If the bleachers are dry, it can damage the cotton.
05:50Carpets shrink during the washing phase.
05:53So they have to be stretched back out once they're dry.
05:59Then the workers clip and shear the carpet's surface to a specific height.
06:05Machines help, but they mostly have to do this by hand.
06:10They also straighten and bind its edges and trim or not any fringes.
06:20After two more rounds of inspection, the carpets are ready for delivery.
06:27It takes hundreds of workers to keep this operation going.
06:31But the company has struggled to find new weavers.
06:37Uttar Pradesh is one of India's poorest states.
06:40And young people are moving away to find better paying jobs.
06:55Many of Obiti's weavers are also farmers.
07:11Obiti has been trying to boost its workforce by recruiting more women.
07:17The Indian carpet industry has been predominantly male for centuries.
07:21And this has been a trend across industries.
07:25Last year, only about 25% of working-age women in India were part of the labor force.
07:33Veteran weavers like Ramlal have trained almost 2,000 women since 2015.
07:40And they're keeping standards high.
07:43If it's a good job, it's a good job.
07:46If it's a good job, it's a good job.
07:50If it was a good job, we have studied children.
07:53We've analyzed our whole lives.
07:55We've put this to, and we've applied our children's first zijn.
08:01We've been good at this.
08:07Our children's children whose parents have been given the income of their children.
08:12Let us go.
08:19This is something we have brought to,
08:20and this is something we have brought to.
Comments