Carpet, Shawl Industry In Deep Slump
Srinagar: The carpet and shawl weaving industries, which have the status of being the backbone of Kashmir handicrafts, are on a sharp decline, throwing thousands of artisans and craftsmen and their families into acute financial and economic distress.
The gravity of the slump can be judged from the fact that carpets, which used to sell at around Rs 900 per square foot just a few years ago during the tenure of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, are today going a-begging at Rs 450, and that too despite credit. The shawl-making craft too is going through a similar crisis. The elaborate government department of handicrafts has failed to arrest the fall and has been able to do nothing except dash off documentary missiles.
A recent survey says that in the Budgan and Baramulla districts, where forty per cent of the population subsists on carpet and shawl weaving, the artisans have been totally idle for the past four months, and there are no buyers for the products they have in stock.
Many craftsmen said that if they manage to sell their products somehow, traders withhold payments for months together, forcing them to think about giving up this vocation. “We have been associated with this trade for decades, and considered it as a gift from Hazrat Shah Hamadan (RA) to Kashmiris,” they say.
A carpet weaver in Mattan, Ghulam Qadir, said that the trade was totally down for the past four months and craftsmen were absolutely idle. Holding the government responsible for the situation, Qadir said that after Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, neither Ghulam Nabi Azad nor the governor had shown any interest in promoting the carpet craft.
A shawl weaver from Budgam, Abdul Rasheed, expressed similar views, saying that around 90 per cent of the people in his area were dependent on shawls and carpets, but both trades were running on a loss for the past three months. “In 2005, an artisan used to earn Rs 100 to 150 per day, but today instead of increasing, this rate has drastically declined,” he said. “One barely manages Rs 60 to 70 a day today,” he said.
A trader, Nazeer Ahmad, said that huge losses in carpets and shawls had put him into dire straits financially and many people had given up their ancestral vocation, taking up alternative professions. A Tangmarg resident, Abdul Rahman said that he had been associated with the carpet trade for the past 35 years, but now there was no fun in the business. “This craft was a gift from Hazrat Ameer-e-Kabeer (RA), but the government’s indifference has sounded its death knell,” he said.
Salamuddin from Chadoora said that on the one hand the government talked of promoting self-employment schemes and urged youth to stand on their own feet, but on the other was destroying traditional and ancestral industries. “If the government continues with this approach, it will have horrific consequences,” he said.
(Kashmir Observer)