COVID-19: Mounting Deaths Stir Powerlooms Back to Life in UP, Bihar as Demand for Shrouds Rises

New Delhi: At a time when the garment industry, like other sectors, is adversely affected because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weavers community in Bihar’s Gaya and Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh, Mau and Varanasi districts are working round the clock to meet the highest ever demand for ‘kafans’ (shrouds) as virus has resulted in a high number of casualties across the country.

‘Kafan’ is a cloth in which a dead body is draped before performing final rites. The dead are covered with a shroud across faiths.

Loom owners and workers in the two states, who were engaged in weaving ‘gamchhas’ (a traditional thin, coarse cotton towel), bed sheets and ‘lungis’ (a long piece of cotton cloth worn as a loincloth) confirmed that they were catering to a “considerably high” demand for shrouds since the second wave of the pandemic started raging across the country.

“We have witnessed a sharp rise in the demand for shrouds, which we send across Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and even few North Eastern states. We are producing 3,000-5,000 individual pieces every day since April this year. Before the pandemic, the daily production size was only 1,000-2,000 pieces. Patwatoli’s six powerlooms are producing the shrouds, and we are supplying 40,000-50,000 pieces every day,” Dwarika Prasad, a loom owner, told NewsClick.

Situated in Manpur block in Gaya district, Patwatoli is also known as the Manchester of Bihar because of its once booming powerloom industry. The small village is also known for having the highest number of IITians in the country. Five-ten students crack IIT-JEE examination every year to make it to the prestigious engineering colleges across the country without attending any coaching class. The area has over 250 IITians.

Prasad said the manufacturing of ‘gamchas’, bedsheets and ‘lungis’ had taken a plunge as there no orders were being placed. “If there are orders, it is for shrouds. We are able to ensure supply only after working overtime,” he said, adding that he has never witnessed such a high demand for shrouds in 45 years of his life.

Though this means a boom for his business, Prasad is not a happy man, as deaths all around break his heart. In a voice choked with emotion, he says: “Corona has destroyed thousands of families. My conscience sometimes does not allow him to make money out people’s grief, but we have to do it to ensure the deceased at least get a dignified funeral.”

Suresh Patwa, who has a handloom in the same area, said there is a spurt in demand for shrouds in the past one month. “We manufacture 3,000-5,000 pieces every day. We are working in three shifts 24x7 without any break, yet we are unable to meet the demand. My whole family is engaged in work, apart from two workers. In February-March, there was not such as huge demand and we used to produce a maximum 10-15 pieces of shrouds daily,” he said.

Patwa, too, appeared sad despite the manifold growth in his income. “It’s true that we are making more money. The steep rise in the demand is also helping sustain the economy of this village, but people are dying and this is really wrong,” he said, adding: “We are supplying at the same price as earlier to ensure there no black marketing”.

Officials at Uttar Pradesh’s Handlooms and Textile Department, too, acknowledged that the demand for shrouds has increased by at least 25% in the past one month. “Earlier, weavers in Azamgarh, Mau and Varanasi used to produce a maximum of 1.5-2 lakh kafans every month. This has gone up to 50-60 lakh. In addition to supplying shrouds to entire Uttar Pradesh, powerloom units in the three districts also cater to several states in other regions, such as Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu etc.,” an official, requesting anonymity, NewsClick.

Gujarat supplies raw material, such as cotton yarn, to these powerlooms. Owing to the disastrous second wave of the deadly virus, lockdowns were imposed in every state. This had resulted in closure of the domestic market, bringing down cotton yarn prices, which are dropping further as lockdown are being extended.