In Madanpura, Women's Hands Give Banarasi Sarees Their Final Touch

Banarasi sarees are very fancy silk dresses made by hand in a city called Varanasi in India.

Many people work together to make just one saree.

A big weaving machine called a loom makes the patterned cloth, and usually a man in the family runs it.

But a lot of other jobs are needed before and after the weaving.

Women in the Madanpura neighbourhood sort the silk threads by colour, wind them onto bobbins, check the cloth for mistakes, and cut off tiny loose threads.

Cutting the little threads is called katorna, and Shaheen is very good at it because she learned it from her mother-in-law.

The women often do this work while also cooking and looking after children.

When the saree is finished, the whole family gets paid together, so the women's special work does not get its own payment.

Some of the women wish people knew whose hands finished each saree.

Even though nobody outside knows their names, without their careful work the saree would not look perfect.