Pandemic dims lustre of roaring silk trade in Sualkuchi, Assam

Weavers and entrepreneurs at the silk centre of Assam are struggling to recover from subsequent lockdowns as festival and wedding celebrations are subdued. Guwahati: Sualkuchi, a quaint little town in Kamrup district of Assam, is in the grips of the global pandemic. The town renowned for its silk trade, which in its heydays provided livelihood to over 50,000 people across the state with an annual turnover of Rs 100 crores, is struggling to cope, faced with monetary and job losses.The town does roaring business during the festival and wedding season. But the health protocols put in place since last year to check the spread of the pandemic has affected the business and brought many small businesses here to the verge of closure.Located some 40 km from Guwahati, Sualkuchi has a historical heritage dating back to the 11th Century AD. King Dharam Pal of the Pala dynasty established Saulkuchi as a weaving hamlet by settling 26 weaving families in this village, more than 1000 years ago. Eventually, it became a silk weavers township.Trade of indigenous silk hit Pat, Muga, and Eri silk, and the ‘Mekhela Chador’, Gamusa and Dokhonas, the town’s exquisite silk products are much sought after across India and many parts of the world. The town gets many clients from outside the state and abroad who purchase in bulk. But since the pandemic, the town’s entrepreneurs have lost even those clients. It's been more than 17 months of poor business and people associated with the silk industry fear it will be very long before they can say it is business as usual.“We always do good business in the two festival seasons in Assam – the Bohag Bihu or the Assamese New Year, and the Durga Puja. Last year we suffered losses as it was complete lockdown during the Bihu season and restrictions were in place during the Puja. We also suffered losses during the wedding season as the ceremonies were held without pomp and grandeur,” rued Kushal Medhi, the proprietor of Chayanika Silk House.The current year has not been any good either, Medhi said. “The silk entrepreneurs are hoping that they get good business during the Durga puja season at least this year.”Entrepreneurs associated with the industry said that the whole chain of the silk business, that takes products from the weavers to the hands of the customers, has been severely disrupted. “There are several segments which keep this trade alive. This includes the weavers and support staff to the people selling the final products at the shops. The covid situation has disrupted this entire chain which otherwise has been moving smoothly,” said Diganta Kalita, a silk entrepreneur, who runs a small factory.“Here in Sualkuchi, we have around 7,000 functional looms, which engages over 20,000 weavers. Besides the weavers, we have the support staff that number in the thousands. Now they and the entrepreneurs are staring at a dark future,” said Hiralal Kalita of the Sualkuchi Tant Silpa Unnayan Samiti, the weavers’ association in this town. “When the lockdown was announced, everyone had thought that it would just be a temporary phase lasting a few days, but things are yet to recover,” Kalita added. The looms in Sualkuchi lie silent as the pandemic disrupts the whole whole silk supply and business chain (Picture credit - Wikimedia Commons)Weavers buried under loans The weavers who earn on a per-product basis expressed worry that the situation might not return to normal and sales will not pick up soon. “Earlier we could comfortably earn anywhere from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 per month. But immediately after the lockdown last year, our income came down to almost nil. And though we started to earn again, the income is not like before,” said Bubul Das, a weaver there. Das explained that they work around the year. Now with a fall in demand post-covid, their incomes have fallen sharply, he added. “The requirement of new products depends on the sale of products and the existing stock, and this year the weavers could have even lesser work and subsequently less income,” Kalita explained.Last year after the lockdown was announced, many weavers had taken a loan to sustain themselves through the lean period. They were hoping to earn more when the situation normalised. However, that has not happened yet. Gunin Deka is one such weaver who had taken a loan and is now worried as the interest is accumulating over the delay in repayment. “Initially I had thought that the crisis would not last more than two months and I had taken a loan of Rs 30,000 from a money-lender to survive the period. I was hoping to earn more and pay it back, but I have not been able to earn enough to pay it entirely and the interest is accumulating,” Deka told 101Reporters. The weavers and the entrepreneurs however are hopeful that they will be able to make up for some of their losses by the end of this year if manage to do good sales during the Durga puja in October and the wdding season which runs from January to April. The next major festival season after that is only Bohag Bihu in April 2022. “The Sualkuchi town does business worth over Rs 15 crore just during the wedding season. But last year, we did less than one-fourth of the usual business,” said Kalita. 

Assam govt. backtracks on election promises, leaves women entrepreneurs in lurch

As soon as it came back to power, the BJP-led government rolled back and diluted two crucial promises it had made to the electorate. Guwahati: The BJP-led alliance that came to power in Assam this May has already started to come under criticism on two issues — not implementing a complete waiver on microfinance loans taken by women and rolling back a Rs 50 hike in the daily wage of tea plantation workers.Pratima Gogoi heaved a sigh of relief in January this year when the then finance minister of Assam and current chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, promised a blanket waiver of all microfinance loans taken by women in the state if the BJP was voted to power again. The 45-year-old woman from Lakhimpur district finally felt she would not have to worry about her debt of Rs 1.5 lakh. Gogoi had taken the loan to start a poultry business, but it failed due to the COVID-19 lockdown last year. She then pinned her hopes on the waiver but is now feeling cheated, instead of relieved. This is because she doesn’t qualify for a loan waiver according to the terms set by the BJP government after it came to power. “It has been a huge disappointment,” said Gogoi, when asked about the scheme.Workers of tea plantations, who form an influential group of voters in the state, too are unhappy with the BJP government. About a month before assembly elections were held, the state government had on February 21 announced a Rs 50 hike in the daily wage of these workers. However, less than a month after it returned to power on May 2, the BJP rolled back the decision by May 26.Buoyed by the support it got for the waiver scheme and the hike announced for tea plantation workers, the BJP-led alliance which comprises Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) triumphed in the Assam elections by winning 75 of the total 126 assembly seats.Angered by the new conditions laid for the waiver scheme, thousands of women have started staging protests across the state and are threatening mass suicides if the state government backtracks on its promise. According to state government data, there are over 26 lakh microfinance customers in Assam who are women and their outstanding loans total Rs 12,500 crore.Though BJP had not included the waiver commitment in its manifesto, Sarma, who was eyeing the CM’s post, had made the promise at several election rallies. “Once we form the government, we will repay all loans taken by women in Assam, of any amount,” he had said at one such rally.  On coming to power, the government had formed a committee headed by state cabinet minister Ashok Singhal to advise on the waiver scheme. Within days, the committee ruled out the possibility of extending a blanket waiver and announced certain criteria to identify beneficiaries. “Income tax payee, persons availing multiple loans, those having four-wheelers, and people with an annual income of more than ₹1 lakh will be excluded from the scheme,” Singhal told reporters on June 11.Gogoi has a four-wheeler and the annual income is more than Rs 1 lakh.‘Took loan to help family, now in debt trap’ Sabitha Devi from Sonitpur district too is disappointed. “I had taken a microfinance loan of Rs 1 lakh last year and invested it in a small business, but there was no income because of the lockdown. We had to repay the loan on a weekly basis, so I had to borrow more money and I got deeper into debt,” said Devi.Devi, who does not meet the eligibility criteria as she owns a car and earns more than Rs 1 lakh, voted for the BJP in the hope of a waiver. “But now everything is shattered,” she said.Many women took microfinance loans to set up small businesses and help their families. Most of them are first-generation woman entrepreneurs. Gogoi said the government should be sympathetic towards them in these difficult times. “My husband, a farmer, is the breadwinner of the family, but even he couldn’t earn much last year,” she said.A women’s group, Jagriti Nari Shakti Samiti, recently submitted a memorandum to the Assam government with a demand to fulfil the waiver promise. “If the government doesn’t stick to its election promise, we will intensify our protests,” said Rumi Phukan, a spokesperson for the organisation.Balm for plantation workersThe government was forced to find a middle path with plantation workers after it came under sharp criticism for completely rolling back the Rs 50 hike it had implemented in February. Several influential tea garden workers’ associations warned of mass protests across the state, forcing the government to hold immediate consultations with the organisations.Later, daily wage was hiked by Rs 38, with effect from February 23 this year.Ahead of the 2016 assembly elections, BJP had promised to increase the daily wage of plantation workers to Rs 365. At present, after the Rs 35 hike, it is Rs 205 in the Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 183 in Barak Valley. There is a difference between the two as wage is fixed by trade union leaders and the management of the tea gardens concerned. Once these two sides decide on the daily wage, the amount is approved by the state government. This is the case even though tea plantation workers are an influential vote bank. “Of all the tribal and ethnic groups of the state, the electoral role of tea tribe community has become the most crucial. They comprise 35 lakh voters, which is enough to play a decisive role in any election,” according to a published paper, ‘Electoral Participation of the Tea Tribe Community in Assam: Special Reference to Lok Sabha Election of 2019’, by Pranami Laskar, a PhD scholar of Assam University.