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Mixed experienceA shitalpati weaver in Rajnagar, Maulvibazar, in a Business Standard Bangla report

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. 1.When a craft pays less a day than ordinary local work, the artisans leave first and the orders go after them
  2. 2.Heritage recognition brings neither demand nor pricing power: without a sales channel of your own the workshop keeps shrinking

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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