Sally Holkar: WomenWeave

Feature Image Credit: WomanWeave

In 1978, Sally Holkar and Richard Holkar were walking along the ghats of Maheshwar when a local weaver approached them with a piece of handwoven cloth.

Maheshwar had generations of weaving knowledge, but industrialisation and the growing market for mill made fabric had left many local weavers without enough work. The weaver asked if they could help his community find a way to earn again.

That encounter became the beginning of Sally Holkar's decades-long work with handloom. In 2025, Sally Holkar was honoured with the Padma Shri for her contribution to India's handloom sector and artisan empowerment.

It Started With 12 Women

In 1979, REHWA Society was established as a non-profit organisation where 8 to 10 looms were set up, and 12 women were trained to weave under a master weaver.

Sally continued working in handloom production, design and management for decades. She later turned her focus more directly towards women, and those who had never been recognised as weavers in their own right.

The Women Working Behind the Loom

In weaving households, women's labour did not always come with the title of weaver. Women could help with preparatory work or contribute behind the scenes while a male family member was recognised as the weaver.

WomenWeave describes some of them as "shadow weavers", women who supported a male family member's work without having the same recognition or control over their labour.

After years of working with Maheshwar's weaving community, Sally founded WomenWeave in 2002, with the charitable trust formally registered in 2003. Its purpose was to make handloom weaving a sustainable and dignified livelihood for women.

They train women who have never woven before and helps existing weavers develop their skills. It also connects weavers with designers and customers in India and internationally. Its Synergy Programme, for example, brings together weavers, block printers, dyers, designers and retailers, helping traditional skills connect with contemporary markets.

Through the Gudi Mudi project, they've prioritised women facing difficult economic circumstances - widowed, divorced and separated women, women with disabilities, and agricultural labourers from families without income. The project has trained more than 500 women in weaving, spinning and related activities.

Their own impact reporting says that some women have become the primary breadwinners in their families. It also describes women forming savings groups and using the money for things such as improving their homes or installing piped water connections.

There Is a Creche Next to the Looms for a Reason

At the Gudi Mudi centre in Maheshwar, there is also a day-care space.

Children of the women working there can stay close to their mothers and take part in activities while the women spin, weave and train. WomenWeave says its early-childhood programme has supported more than 130 children.

In Dindori, they found weaving communities where only men worked at the loom, while women helped with preparatory work without knowing how to weave. The organisation began training women to weave, which it describes as the first time women had taken up weaving in the area's local weaving history.

Decades after that first weaver approached Sally Holkar in Maheshwar, the work has gone far beyond keeping a craft alive. Women who once worked around the loom are now being trained and recognised as weavers in their own right.