Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, March 14: It has been for 16 days now that the first-ever national Khadi Utsav, which is being organised on the premises of the Khadi Board, is going on in full swing here, but some of the stall owners complain that they are yet to sell ‘a single product’ and come every day to the fair expecting ‘good sale’ to take place but go back empty handed at the end of the day. Around 200 stalls representing different states have been set up to sale khadi and related products.
Rohit Kumar Dewangan from Chhattisgarh, who owns a stall selling Kosa silk also known as Kosa tussar silk, a poor cousin of pure silk, didn’t sell any product for the last 10 days and is very disappointed with the fair. “I have mostly brought saris and dress material made from Kosa silk. Kosa fruit (not a regular fruit though; the silkworm, different from mulberry silkworm, feeds on Kosa leaves and forms a cocoon that is so named) is first boiled and then only Kosa silk can be made from it. The procedure for making this silk is time consuming and therefore the saris made of it are a bit expensive. The turnout of visitors is less; due to this many stall owners are still waiting for their first sale. I haven’t sold anything since March 2,” he said. “It is a national-level fair and that is why I participated in it, but with the response I am getting I am very disappointed” he added.
Sivananada Tosha another stall owner from Cuttack selling Sambalpuri cotton saris has a similar story to share. “People hardly visit the fair. It’s been 16 days now and every day we are doing the same thing – arrange the stall and by evening pack the things without a sale. I think that the fair has not been promoted properly, as a result of which people are not aware of it. Even the fair venue lacks in security and fire protection arrangements,” he alleged.
Rouf Ahmedwani from Kashmir also shared the same opinion. “The reason the fair is not receiving positive response from the visitors is because of the lack of proper advertisement in media, wrong timing of conducting the fair and also the location of the fair,” he said. He thinks that March is the time when most of the school and colleges hold their exams, so students and parents are busy; moreover the month being the end of the financial year, most of the employees are busy paying income taxes. “People, therefore has less money to spend. Only a few people are coming to the fair, but they too just visit the stall and walk away without purchasing anything” he said.
The organisers of the fair are however, not ready to accept the views of these stall owners. Taking to Orissa Post, Odisha Khadi and Village Industries Board president, Tejeswar Parida said, “I don’t agree with what the stall owners are saying. Many stall owners are very happy with what they are selling but those who are selling costly products are having some problems. People may have some (financial) constraint, they are coming but are not purchasing. It is for the first that a national-level khadi fair has been organised and people are not used to this culture. It will take some time to gain popularity”
He however agreed that the turnover of the visitors has not been “good”. “May be because of the board exams or because of the financial year end when people are required to pay their income taxes the footfalls have been below par. I accept that November and December would have been the right time for such a fair, but that doesn’t mean that we can only organise khadi fairs in winters and not in any other months,” he said.
Refuting the allegation of lack of proper promotion as alleged by some stall owners, he said, “We have released necessary advertisements in all kinds of media. Regarding the poor sale of some products, the stall owners need to have competitive pricing to enhance sales.”
The people visiting the fair, however, say that they were not aware about it from its beginning and came to know about it only at a later stage. “I came to know about the fair very late only after seeing recent advertisements in some local dailies. Many people don’t know about the ongoing Khadi Utsav because of lack of proper promotion. There are, however, many good products here,” said Kamini Patnaik, a retired teacher, who visited the fair with her daughter-in-law Friday.
One Khadi Board official, however, refused to accept that the footfalls were steadily declining. “Initially the footfalls of the visitors were poor, but now people are visiting the fair; the number is increasing every day and we hope that it will increase more in the coming days,” said senior economic investigator, Khadi Board, PR Sarangi.
The Khadi Utsav will continue till March 18, but “some stall owners want to leave the fair, while one or two have already left,” said one stall owner, who refused to identify himself.