Lockdown ruined wooden toys business of Banaras, Rs 8 crore worth of orders cancelled

Lockdown has badly impacted the wooden toy business of Varanasi. So far, orders from across the country and abroad worth Rs 8 crore have been cancelled. The toys manufactured for Rakshabandhan and Diwali festivals too are lying unsold. This has pushed both craftsmen and traders on the verge of starvation.

Varanasi: Lockdown has been implemented in four stages in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic since March 24th because of which the economy has been derailed. To bring back the economy on the tracks, the finance minister has announced a relief package of Rs 20 lakh crore a part of which is for the Medium and Small Scale Manufacturing Enterprises (MSME).

But the question is being raised whether this would really help improve the situation of small and cottage industries.

The condition of the centuries old wooden toy cottage industry of Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become worse from bad. So far orders worth Rs 8 crore have been cancelled and over 1,500 families engaged in the business are on the verge of starvation. Neither the traders nor the craftsmen know how are they going to get benefits from the relief package announced for the MSME sector.

The centuries old heritage craft of making wooden toys is practiced by people from their homes in the Kashmiri Ganj lane of Khojwa area of Varanasi. The craftsmen are today seen sitting idle outside their homes without any work. It is in this lane lives the national award recipient craftsman Rameshwar Singh.

Rameshwar Singh has contributed a lot in making the city’s wooden toys craft famous. This is why wooden toys have become part of the gifts that are given to the dignitaries like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and are showcased at all important functions. The lockdown has broken the back bone of this industry today.

According to Rameshwar Singh, vermillion boxes worth Rs 2 crore are lying unsold because its order has been cancelled. Similarly Rs 1 crore worth of decorative pieces are lying unsold. Orders worth Rs 5 crore from Germany, France, America and Japan among 15 other countries have been cancelled.

Even though wooden toys had received GI tags in 2014, the whole industry today is in dire straits because of the cancellation of orders due to lockdown.

Craftsmen who used to earn Rs 200 to Rs 500 as their daily wage are sitting idle so are the machines. No one knows when the cottage industry will resume. Craftsmen say that though the finance minister has announced a relief package for the MSME sector, they do not know when will they get its benefits.

Craftsmen and traders want the government to at least give them free electricity for three months and give them benefits under the Ayushman scheme.

Every craftsman who have the craftsman’s identity card should be given Rs 5,000 cash every month besides an insurance of Rs 10 lakh in order to revive the centuries old industry and save the craftsmen from starvation.