KENDRAPARA: Independence Day brings brisk business for tailors of Kendrapara and its nearby areas.
The tailors are busy stitching the tri-colour to meet the huge demand. With Independence Day a few days away, the tailors are sitting on heaps of coloured clothes from which the national flags will be made.
Mohammad Sahid, a tailor from Kendrapara town, said, “We make different sizes of the national flag for people. But we sell these at low prices.” Another tailor of the town, Sanjay Moharana, said he has been working for the past one month to make the most of the opportunity. Stitching national flags is a seasonal business. However, the younger generation is not keen to continue the job.
The price of a tri-colour varies from Rs 50 to Rs 500. A tailor can earn around Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 by sewing national flags of different sizes on the eve of Independence Day, said Sanatan Sahoo, a tailor. He said tri-colour can only be made of ‘khadi’.
Two decades back, the tailors used to get coloured ‘khadi’ fabric at a lower price. But this has changed now and the cloth does not come cheap anymore. Sanatan said the ratio of the width of the flag to its length is 2:3 and one needs to strictly follow the norms.
However, some people violate the National Flag Code by hoisting tri-colours made of plastic and paper on rooftops on Independence Day, said 92-year-old Nakula Das, a noted freedom fighter and president of District Freedom Fighters’ Association. “But the authorities are not taking any action against them,” he rued.