The comments here are so touching and thoughtful! In another comment section someone wrote something about women being better when they support one another. I think we see evidence of this in the teamwork of Savitha and Poornima. The combining of their two "jobs" (spinning and weaving) to create something beautiful and lasting binds them together. Without one, there wouldn't be another. This is what occurs to Savitha while she is lying crumpled in the woods after yet another brutal attack. The sari had protected her heart. It was what kept her "whole". As long as she had the sari, she had a tangible reminder that she had something beautiful in her life. She had love.
I had missed the article about the charkha as well. I appreciate the link, Davina. The creation of this and its use in impoverished villages gave HOPE to the people who relied on it. Hope for a little money, hope for food, hope for a better future for the children. Savitha carried that hope with her in the form of the sari that had begun as the boll, then to the loom, then finally the cloth.