Hyderabad: Lockdown hits cloth traders, tailors hard

Hyderabad: Cloth merchants and tailors who generally work overtime and remain in much demand during Ramzan are bearing the brunt of lockdown imposed to curtail the spread of Covid pandemic.

Piling up misery on them, some social organisations and leaders have also given a call against purchasing new clothes for Eid, and, instead, advocated support to poor families in these challenging times.

Each year from the first week of Ramzan, Muslims purchase clothes and dress materials for entire family and give them to tailors to get them ready by the second week.

Tailors by second stop accepting any new orders with orders flooding in. While men indulge in purchasing materials for kurta, pyjama, safari, shirts, and trousers, women and children shop for suits, frocks, dresses, etc, for stitching.

According to Hyderabad Wholesale Art Silks Cloth Merchants Association president Govind Agarwal, each year the textile industry makes crores of turnover, but this Ramzan the lockdown has pushed the traders to the brink.

The association which comprises 325 members used to procure stocks from traders in Mumbai and Gujarat, but they anticipated the scenario and refrained from stocking up.

"Before Ramzan several retailers including from districts used to purchase materials worth lakhs of rupees, but this year none of the retailers has visited. The Corona crisis has affected the business a lot," said Agarwal.

During Ramzan, the tailors used to be a busy lot working overtime as demand for dresses remained high. "Many tailors used to employ dozens of workers in Ramzan, but this year the workers are also affected. Since the lockdown would not be lifted soon, we have lost all hopes," said Khana Pasha, proprietor of Modesto Men's Tailors.

S K Jani, a ladies tailor working for 40 years, used to earn around Rs 15,000-20,000 in Ramzan season, but this year he is struggling to earn money even to survive. "I have been working from the age of eight, but never faced a situation like this," he said.

Meanwhile, some online campaigners like Muslims of India appealed to the community members, "Let's wear the best clothes, not new clothes this Eid." It further asks for 'feeding a family,' 'paying someone's school fee' and similar charities to help people.

A grandson of Nizam VII, Mir Najaf Ali Khan, also called upon people to avoid extravagant spending. "As Ramadan has started and Eid-ul-Fitr is approaching, let's pledge to exclude our materialism and gloating and be mindful of the underprivileged around us.

Let's say no to excessive and unnecessary shopping for Eid. Keeping in mind the current situation due to the ongoing lockdown for COVID-19 most of us are at home, but the poor and needy are left to fend for themselves without a job as everything is shut down," he noted.