{"id":35384,"date":"2020-12-15T21:14:54","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T15:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=35384"},"modified":"2020-12-15T21:14:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T15:44:54","slug":"kashmirs-artisans-suffer-badly-amid-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=35384","title":{"rendered":"Kashmir\u2019s artisans suffer badly amid COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Srinagar<\/strong>: People associated with handicrafts in Kashmir are struggling to feed their families due to subsequent lockdowns since August 5 last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Kashmir remained shut for months after abrogation of Article 370 in August last year and now COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Amid this, at least 3 lakh people associated with handicrafts including carpets, papier-machie, shawls, wood carving are finding it difficult to feed their families. Kashmir\u2019s handicrafts are famous across the world due to quality and are man made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ghulam Mohammad, 45, a resident of North Kashmir\u2019s Baramulla district has been selling vegetables on a footpath for the last several months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the money I had saved which I earned through carpet weaving has been exhausted. It is over a year now, we are making no earnings through carpet weaving and now selling vegetables,\u201d he told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS). Before August 5 last year, he would earn Rs 600 per day. He had two more people who were assisting him in carpet weaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

There are so many artisans who have taken up odd jobs to manage the expenses of their families during the COVID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were making earnings even during the worst times. But this time, our business is shut as we are not able to export carpets in international markets,\u201d said Bashir Ahmad, a carpet dealer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Gulf and European countries form a major customer base for Kashmiri carpet dealers.
They have suffered huge losses as they could not export the goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammad Subhan, a papier-machie artist from Srinagar is sitting idle since the COVID-19 began in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been badly hit first by lockdown post abrogation of Article 370 and now COVID-19 pandemic. There is no availability of raw material. There is hardly any productivity and sales,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Kashmiri craft of papier-machie mainly uses wood, leftover wood pulp and paper waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year Subhan would participate in various artisan fairs across India like in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Gujarat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

However, this year, these fairs were not organized due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bandipora\u2019s Gada Khad village over 500 people associated with handicrafts are doing menial jobs to sustain their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

An official said 3 lakh people associated with handicrafts are in bad shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said presently there is no business in the handicrafts sector. (KINS)<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Srinagar: People associated with handicrafts in Kashmir are struggling to feed their families due to subsequent lockdowns since August 5 last year. Kashmir remained shut for months after abrogation of Article 370 in August last year and now COVID-19. Amid this, at least 3 lakh people associated with handicrafts including carpets, papier-machie, shawls, wood carving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}