Future of silk town Mubarakpur in tatters

Azamgarh In a dingy but airy room in his house Faizul Hassan a weaver in Mubarakpur works tirelessly on a handloom to make a silk saree that is sold as the brand Benarasi for a price that not many can afford It may take a weeks time to weave one fulllength saree but Faizul earns much less than the final price that his product commandsIn a dimlylit poorlyventilated room downstairs his 18yearold daughter Iram runs a power loom and then joins her younger sibling Haira 14 to finetune the zardosi in a woven saree spread across the floor of a bada kamra that has cracks on its walls Faizuls 10member family includes his wife and eight kids mdash three sons and five daughters He is the sole breadwinner who gets support from his wife and kids who share some burdenFaizul Hassan a weaver earns much less than what his Benarasi sarees sell forGujara hota hain kaise kaise We make a living anyhow he says adding that the bad business has made him tell the children to study hard and get good jobs Iram is pursuing BA and Haira is in Std XII The remaining children attend local schools He says the kids who dont get jobs elsewhere will carry the family legacy of 400 years forward Faizul says the condition of all 15000 weavers mostly the Muslims and Hindus is similar Other than weavers block makers drycleaners labourers transporters also depend on the main vocation of the townCant weave around issuesIftekhar Ahmed secretary of Mubarakpur Reshmi Vastra Udyog Vyapari Mandal a local cooperative of weavers steps in to explain The difference between our product and the one which is made in Benaras Varanasi is that we make a pure silk product whereas they Benaras mix a duplicate thread with pure silk And yet were lagging behind because we dont have a market and brand name that can sell itself he saysIftekar Ahmed and fellow weavers at the market constructed in Mubarakpur which has not been inaugurated two years after completion PicsDharmendra JoreAhmed himself is a weaver and doubles up as an activist for getting his place worldwide recognition by attending exhibitions across the country along with his two sons Mubarakpur lost at least 10000 weavers to the violence between two Muslim groups and a tense situation that prevailed after a bomb blast some years ago They had come from Bihar and some places in Uttar Pradesh but migrated after the sad incidents Efforts have been made by the Congress UPA and Samajwadi governments to improve the scene here he said Competition has made Mubarakpur innovate The weavers came up with a jugad loom they tweaked handlooms to turn them into power looms by fitting them with small motors This jugad helped us save physical labour in creating products that could be made on power looms But handlooms remained because the work they create remains unmatched said AhmedPower brings with it problemsA big concern was raised when the Yogi government brought in electricity reform A fixed monthly rate of R75 per power loom could be a thing of the past because the electricity company has planned to install meters to compute power consumption Ahmed and his president Ammar Abidi fear the worst in view of the new move Poor weavers here will not be able to pay huge power bills The scheme given by Akhilesh Yadav exCM and local Lok Sabha candidate has been a boon of sorts What will happen if it goes asks AbidiAnother allegation that goes against the Yogi Government is that it did not make the Mubarkpur saree Azamgarh districts brand product under the scheme One District One Product Instead the government chose black pottery denying the weavers the benefit that the scheme would offer to bolster marketingThe place which is very close to big cities from all sides does not have proper transportation and logistics facility A demand made to the Congresss union government that rail connectivity to Gorakhpur and Varanasi be provided remained unfulfilled The lack of such facilities delays arrival of raw stock because the silk thread and other material required is not made in Mubarakpur Here the competition scores over Mubarakpur The Samajwadi Party government conceded to a demand for constructing a market but the complex is not inaugurated even after two years of completion A beautifully built 158shop place remains locked A bus station was built but not many routes are planned thus keeping the traders and tourists awayDeliberate rejection by BJPWe have been petitioning Yogiji UP CM Adityanath frequently to start the facilities that are already built but in vain said Ahmed The activist and his colleagues did not allege discrimination but reactions from the people in the streets did smack of some deliberate rejection by the BJP primarily because the constituency and this place in particular is a stronghold of Samajwadi PartyCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates