BHADRAK: There was a time when their hand-made mats, carpets, rush mats, door mats and brooms made of date palm leaves were money-spinners. Today, they are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Reason: Lack of market linkage and patronage, scarcity of leaves and changing preference of people.
For centuries, the villagers of Patrasahi in Chandbali block of the district have been eking out a living by making various palm leaf products. It is almost a hereditary cottage industry of 80 ‘kela’ community members.
“The demand for our hand-made mats locally called ‘khajuri chatei’ was high in the past as there was no chatei-making community in this area and its cost was comparable cheaper than that of other mats,’’ said 85-year-old village head Suria Patra, whose family has been in the business for last three generations.
Male members of the community move from village to village to collect leaves of the date palm trees. “Decades back date palm leaves were available in plenty along roadside. But most of the date palm trees faced the axe due to road expansion works and we have to trudge even 50 km to collect the leaves,” said Kalandi Patra, an artisan.
It needs two to three hours to make a carpet and a family can make two to three mats (chateis) daily. Though people in towns are now preferring plastic and grass stick mats (sapa), the palm-leaf mats are still popular among the poor.
“We can’t afford plastic mats. The ‘khajuri chatei’ is cheaper than the grass stick mats,” said Padmanava Mallick, a poor villager of Gopabandhupur village under Bhadrak block. ''We pay Rs 30 for a palm leaf ‘chatei’ and it lasts long,'' he added.
However, now the villagers are facing difficulties to collect the leaves. As the leaves are not available locally, they are forced to bear the transporting cost. “Now the margin of profit is low and it is difficult to live on this trade,” said Kalandi and added there is no effort by the panchayat or the government to promote this cottage industry. Now, the demand for palm leaf mats is limited to a few villages. Though the brooms are preferred by urban population, it can’t sustain the trade, he said.
‘’As we have no access to the markets in the town, we depend on middlemen to sell our products. So we seldom get proper price for our products,’’ said Suria.