Ujjain dyeing units on the verge of extinction

About 150 dyeing and printing units of the village of Bhairavgarh, situated on the banks of the river Kshipra (in Ujjain), are moving towards extinction.

Small orders from Madhya Pradesh government agencies, high raw material costs, and lack of modernisation in the textile sector have pushed the 700-year-old art, which feeds readymade cloth markets of Ujjain and nearby areas, into the red.

Almost each dwelling of Bhairavgarh has wax pens, dyeing chemicals and printing blocks, and a kerosene stove and clay to display colours on raw cloth supplied from the national textile mills or nearby powerlooms.

Now most of them are gathering dust. To begin with, the Bhairavgarh print used blocks made of potatoes and bandhej, but later took to blocks of soil or wood, and, further later, alijarin chemicals.

"Now the age of block prints is over," said craftsman Mehmood Asgar. Bhandhej, batik, and block printing are now almost gone in this small village of craftsmen. Only screen-printing provides livelihood to about 150 families.

"Now there is no return on investment. The Madhya Pradesh Hasta Shilpa Vikas Nigam has discontinued orders. Once the order amount reached Rs 70 lakh for our batik, bhandhej and block prints. Now it's zero. We bank on private suppliers in local markets of Ujjain," said Mohammed Hussain, a traditional dyeing unit owner.

The mechanisation of dyeing and printing has also affected the work of the craftsmen, who are fighting the last battle of their survival. Bandhej "" a style and process of dying cloth "" marking points on the cloth, and on every point-tying knot for chunari and laharia, fetches nominal price. The free hand style of colour craft probably came to India from Indonesia or China, which still supply wax to this village at very high cost.

"Bandhej is a typical process, in case of more than one colours the process is repeated for every single colour. This process goes on from light colours to dark colour that increase input cost," said Mohammed.

The craftsmen use China wax, which is available only in Ujjain market at Rs 200-225 per kg.

"Previously it was available at Rs 150-160 per kg. Other chemicals are also costlier and no chemical comes less than Rs 300-325 per kg making the dyeing costlier," said Zafar Hussain another craftsmen and dying unit owner who employs 4-5 people in his unit, which is on the verge of collapse.

Till 1995-1996, Bhairavgarh output stood at 50000 meters of cloth dyeing and printing every day now it has been reduced to hardly 5000 meters a day. There are 50-60 batik print units that produces bedsheets, pillow-covers, nightgowns, shirts, wall hanging and dress material.

"We supply dyed and printed dress material to private players since Madhya Pradesh Hastshilp Vikas Nigam (a corporation that promotes handicraft) officials have not changed rates for the last 17 years. A 90X108 inches double bedsheed fetches on Rs 166 and a bed-sheet of 60X90 inch fetch Rs 97 only from the corporation," said Rajju Bhai who runs a dying unit in Bharivgarh, adding, "Private suppliers not only offers more money (Rs 190 for double bedsheet and Rs 150 for single bedsheet) our product is being exported through them."

However, craftsmen do not get their share of profit. According to a private supplier, Khuzema Matkawala, who has his showroom in Ujjain for Bhairavgarh, keeps dress material and other products.

He says margins are only possible in saris, bedsheets and dress material. Ujjian has only 30 buyers for "Bhairavgarh print". A thin supply also reaches Indore, Jabalpur and even UK and the Gulf countries. However, Bhairavgarh now does not dye cloth in vegetable dyes, nor it uses its blocks for print. "It is a dying business now," said Rajju Bhai.

Madhya Pradesh Hastashilpa Vikas Nigam officials were not available for comment.

(The correspondent was recently in Bhairavgarh)