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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/bengal-handloom-weavers-face-low-demand-for-their-products.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | 'There Has Been No Business This Year': Demand Plummets For Bengal's Weavers -Gurvinder Singh | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

'There Has Been No Business This Year': Demand Plummets For Bengal's Weavers -Gurvinder Singh

-TheWire.in

“The opening of the markets would bring no respite to us. There would be hardly any sales during the festive months due to financial doom," said a weaver in Dhaniekhali.

Kolkata: Raju Singha Rao, a handloom sari weaver at Phulia in West Bengal’s Nadia district, has been having sleepless nights since the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24.

The financial crisis coupled with thoughts of starvation and hunger has been keeping him awake. The 40-year-old says that the pandemic has virtually wiped off his business.

“I have not sold a single sari over the past two months. We lost the crucial season of Bengali New Year in April and Ramzan to the lockdown. The restrictions might be lifted sooner or later, but who will buy saris when survival is itself a challenge every day?” he said, his voice choking up.

He is not alone. A similar predicament is shared by over 1.2 lakh weavers in the Shantipur-Phulia region of Nadia, which is the hub of weavers churning out Shantipuri, Tangail, and Jamdani handloom sarees in a variety of yarns like cotton, tussar and silk. Products like dhotis, dress materials, stoles and scarves are also woven in these clusters along with saris. Most of them have switched from handlooms to power looms to make saris.

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