Handloom fairs in city drawing large crowd
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Monira Begum Munni
Bangladesh Handloom Board's (BHB) month-long fairs of traditional handloom products in the city have started gaining momentum ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
"We organised the fairs with a view to popularising the traditional handloom products and protecting the manufacturers," BHB board member Mahtab Uddin Ahmed told the FE.
There are more than fifty stalls at Taltola alone which began on the first day of Ramadan displaying a wide range of handloom products of local weavers, he said and added that the fairs would help them overcome the losses.
"Our target customers are people from the middle and lower middle classes," he added.
Store owners on the other hand fear a dry festival season this year, as price hike of essential commodities has added extra pressure on peoples' budget.
Shoppers swarmed the stalls on Tuesday, the second weekend in Ramadan but Eid shopping is yet to pick up pace, said a salesman of Aapon Textile.
"Last Friday we had a large crowd, however the sale was not as good as we expected," said another salesman of Eka Jamdani Weaving Factory.
People now mostly spend time window-shopping, while vast majority of them are waiting for the Eid bonus expected to be disbursed this week, he added.
Traditional Jamdani, Tangail and Pabna handloom sarees, shalwar kameez, shirts, panjabi, payjama, fatua, lungi, bed sheets, frocks, kurta are available in Taltola and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar fairs.
The prices of Jamdani ranged between Tk 2,500 and Tk 20,000. Tangail and Pabna handloom saree, Tk 300 to Tk 750, salwar kameez, Tk 250 to Tk 1500, lungi, Tk 180 to Tk 300, and panjabi between Tk 300 and Tk 1500.
Children's dress ranged between Tk 200 and Tk 500.
Though these fairs are for handloom products, there are stalls for cosmetics, shoes, honey and other showpiece items as well.
Over 50 per cent of the handlooms in the country are not in use at the moment due to lack of necessary support from the government.
Annual handloom fairs, like the one currently going on, can hardly hide the fact that the sector has been suffering from utter neglect.
In the Narsingdi district alone, once glorified as the Manchester of Bengal, 0.1 million looms, which amounts to 70 per cent of the total, have reportedly fallen silent over the last thirty-five years or so, throwing over 80,000 weavers out of employment, sources said.
The industry meets most of the local requirements for basic products like sarees, lungi, bed sheets, towels and the like.
However, the weavers believed that if access to institutional credit were made available to them at reasonable rates with flexible modes of payment, the handloom industry could once again become a lasting brand for Bangladesh, both at home and abroad.
Bangladesh Handloom Board's (BHB) month-long fairs of traditional handloom products in the city have started gaining momentum ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
"We organised the fairs with a view to popularising the traditional handloom products and protecting the manufacturers," BHB board member Mahtab Uddin Ahmed told the FE.
There are more than fifty stalls at Taltola alone which began on the first day of Ramadan displaying a wide range of handloom products of local weavers, he said and added that the fairs would help them overcome the losses.
"Our target customers are people from the middle and lower middle classes," he added.
Store owners on the other hand fear a dry festival season this year, as price hike of essential commodities has added extra pressure on peoples' budget.
Shoppers swarmed the stalls on Tuesday, the second weekend in Ramadan but Eid shopping is yet to pick up pace, said a salesman of Aapon Textile.
"Last Friday we had a large crowd, however the sale was not as good as we expected," said another salesman of Eka Jamdani Weaving Factory.
People now mostly spend time window-shopping, while vast majority of them are waiting for the Eid bonus expected to be disbursed this week, he added.
Traditional Jamdani, Tangail and Pabna handloom sarees, shalwar kameez, shirts, panjabi, payjama, fatua, lungi, bed sheets, frocks, kurta are available in Taltola and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar fairs.
The prices of Jamdani ranged between Tk 2,500 and Tk 20,000. Tangail and Pabna handloom saree, Tk 300 to Tk 750, salwar kameez, Tk 250 to Tk 1500, lungi, Tk 180 to Tk 300, and panjabi between Tk 300 and Tk 1500.
Children's dress ranged between Tk 200 and Tk 500.
Though these fairs are for handloom products, there are stalls for cosmetics, shoes, honey and other showpiece items as well.
Over 50 per cent of the handlooms in the country are not in use at the moment due to lack of necessary support from the government.
Annual handloom fairs, like the one currently going on, can hardly hide the fact that the sector has been suffering from utter neglect.
In the Narsingdi district alone, once glorified as the Manchester of Bengal, 0.1 million looms, which amounts to 70 per cent of the total, have reportedly fallen silent over the last thirty-five years or so, throwing over 80,000 weavers out of employment, sources said.
The industry meets most of the local requirements for basic products like sarees, lungi, bed sheets, towels and the like.
However, the weavers believed that if access to institutional credit were made available to them at reasonable rates with flexible modes of payment, the handloom industry could once again become a lasting brand for Bangladesh, both at home and abroad.