Tibetan refugees find city best bet to sell woolen wear

Vijayawada: Refugee families from Tibet have set up makeshift tents here to sell their woolen wear, which has gained popularity in the city off late. They paid Rs 20,000 tax to the municipal corporation for allowing them to erect temporary stalls beside Dharna Chowk here.

Tibetan refugee community sets up stalls in Dharna Chowk that. The Odisha locals pause farming to sell quality woolen wear in the city each year. City’s move to clear their settlement areas for beautification poses a new challenge. 

The community is to stay in the city until the second week of February to sell their commodities. Their business witnessed 35 per cent fall this season, which raised a concern of finding the suitable place in the coming year to continue their business in the city, as canal bunds are being beautified by removing encroachments on them.

Tamding Tsewang, who looks after the group’s activities expressed fear that they might not get the same place next year as the government was making changes in the city post-bifurcation. “Even though we face tough competition from local and non-local business of woolen ware, we have an edge over others because of quality material we get from Punjab and Kashmir apart from fixed prices which are lower compared with others’ bargaining prices,” a stall owner said.  
      
The families sought refuge in India post the Chinese aggression a long time ago. Some of them settled in Odisha, where the local government built houses in 1960. A settlement has also been said to be staying in Karnataka. Tamding says they had been farming in Odisha and visit Vijayawada only during off-season for crops. “We learnt to live a dignified life here despite being refugees,” he added.

Their visit to Vijayawada for making woolen garments a business started many decades ago. They used to camp at Lenin Centre and Rama Talkies Centre in Gandhinagar. However, since the past three years, they had shifted their temporary camp in the vicinity of Dharna Chowk as local authorities have been on a beautification drive across the city.

A group of 50 people landed here this season and erected about 15 stalls displaying colourful woolen garments to attract customers. Though they are poor at Telugu, they successfully accomplish their business targets by employing local salespersons.