CHITTOOR: Bangurpeta Rajachari (60), a woodcarver of Madhavamala in Yerpedu mandal, has been rendered jobless as the Covid-19 has dealt a severe blow to the traditional cottage industry of the village.
He along with his son Kumar, used to sell wooden crafts and toys in exhibitions set up by NABARD and National Handloom Development Corporation across the country regularly. Rajachari used to provide work to a minimum of 10 craftsmen prior to the Covid pandemic. Now, he has no orders in hand. In the last one and half years, only three handicrafts exhibitions were organised in the northern states and a little stock was sold in those expos. This is not just the case of Rajachari alone.
About 60 woodcarver families in Madhavamala are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet due to lack of work orders. The produced wooden crafts have also got accumulated with them.
“We usually sell wooden toys and carvings for around six months in a year in the exhibitions arranged by NABARD and National Handloom Development Corporation across the country. We used to sell wooden crafts worth about Rs 5 lakh in the exhibitions. During the pandemic, we are not able to do good business in the handicrafts exhibitions organised in Delhi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam in the last 15 months.
Actutally, there is a good demand for Madhavamala wood carvings in Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai, but fear of Covid has kept the people away from the crafts exhibitions, affecting our business,” he said.
“A woodcarver family can earn around Rs 20,000 a month. About 60 families have been engaged in making wooden crafts and toys for the last four to five decades as the crafts and skills have passed down from one generation to another. Now, we do not have any orders. The Covid has hit the woodcarving cottage industry badly,” said Kumar, seeking government’s aid to bail them out of the crisis.