A lakh taka of mats a month before Covid, now not even 30,000-40,000
A weaver of forty years saw monthly sales fall from about 1 lakh taka to under 30,000-40,000, and his artisans from 30 to five. A shitalpati artisan never made more than 200-300 taka a day, so many left the trade.
This weaver from Tulapur village in Rajnagar upazila, Maulvibazar, has woven shitalpati for 40 years. Before Covid he sold roughly 1 lakh taka of mats a month and kept 30 artisans at work; since the pandemic his sales have fallen below 30,000-40,000 taka a month and only five artisans remain. Another weaver in the same report explains why they left: working as a shitalpati artisan never paid more than 200-300 taka a day. One man who spent about 30 years at it now drives a rickshaw for around 500 taka a day. Small mats sell for 1,000-1,200 taka and large ones for at most 5,000-6,000. Across Sylhet division the families in the craft have fallen from 4,000-5,000 twenty-odd years ago to about 1,000, and UNESCO recognition in 2017 did not turn that around.
Lessons
- 1.When a craft pays less a day than ordinary local work, the artisans leave first and the orders go after them
- 2.Heritage recognition brings neither demand nor pricing power: without a sales channel of your own the workshop keeps shrinking
We published this with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
Discussion
Nobody has written anything yet. You can be the first.