Satish Lele satish.lele@gmail.com

ENDI SILK can meet some of our goals, e.g. employment, raising real income, viable livelihood and empowering women & children. ENDI/ERI can be marketed, and today is marketed by the Assam Government, as non-violent silk, grown on castor and the only silk reeled without cutting short the natural life of the pupae. Such fabric is a beautiful cream-white & may be promoted as-is in wealthy circles for white WEDDING DRESSES such as now worn in Christian ceremonies and increasingly in modern Buddhist societies with a combination of western & traditional wedding ceremonies, e.g. Singapore & Japan.
In India too, Vaishnavas need not wear silk produced by killing silkworms when alternative, beautiful silk is easily available. It is emphasized by well-organized organizations. Even schoolchildren build a powerful campaign: NO CRUEL SILK.
Endi silk will help many women and children find productive employment. In a rural economy, one's value is proportional to one's economic input. Thus, cropping systems, or economic systems that reduce the role & relative importance of women, children & the elderly versus the able-bodied men upset many sets of balances in the village economy. Our current cropping systems and the enforced lack of choice has also enforced immiserization at many levels, as a result. Farmer suicides, Naxalism, Talibanism, all represent various facets of a larger social malaise.