Gitika Sharma
Pune: Maharashtra’s textile department is moving ahead with a plan to tag every authentic Paithani sari with a unique barcode and a distinctive logo, allowing buyers to “scan and verify” whether a sari is genuinely handwoven or an imitation. State Textiles Minister Sanjay Savkare has outlined the initiative to protect the heritage weave’s identity from the flood of machine-made copies in the market.
While the trade has broadly welcomed the move, those close to the craft say a tag alone won’t solve a problem that has quietly hurt weavers’ livelihoods for years.
Rakesh, a Paithani manufacturer and retailer in Pune, said he was glad to see the sari get this recognition but remained doubtful.
“I think it’s a good step, and we’re happy that Paithani is getting this kind of recognition. But the real question is, how much can a tag actually do? We already have so many products with tags, and you still find copies being sold, sometimes even with fake tags,” he said.
His deeper worry is the toll on weavers. “A pure Paithani can take 40 to 45 days to make, while an artificial one can be made in just 10 to 15 days. So you have someone putting in a month and a half of hard work, and then a fake product comes into the market and competes with it,” he said. “We just hope this system actually helps us reach a point where the fakes can be controlled, because at the end of the day, it’s the weaver’s hard work that suffers the most.”
Sakshi Thombare, a Maharashtra-based textile designer and expert, said authentication matters because it’s hard for buyers to tell a handwoven Paithani from an imitation. “Paithani is not just about the final look of the sari. It’s about the technique, the time, the craftsmanship and the weaver’s skill that goes into making it,” she said.
But a barcode alone, she cautioned, isn’t enough. “It can help with identification and traceability, but the system has to be strong enough that the information behind that barcode cannot simply be replicated. Otherwise, you’re just putting another label on the product,” she said. “If I scan a Paithani, I should be able to know where it was made, who made it, whether it is handwoven, what materials have been used and ideally have that information verified. That is what can actually build trust.”
Paithani, woven in Paithan and Yeola, remains one of Maharashtra’s most recognisable and imitated textiles.
