Potters in Dehradun say they are struggling to keep their business afloat due to lack of good quality clay.
Instead of making all of their own products, they have shifted to buying some of them from outside the city.Ramesh Kumar has a family business of earthenware and sells his products near Bindaal Bridge.
He says that the quality of the clay they acquire has gone down. The mud has sand particles mixed in it which makes it hard for them to prepare the clay.
This has forced him to make lesser products and sell the ones he buys from outside the city. He says that simple water storage vessels have now been replaced by vessels that have taps attached to them. In the summer season, customers look for these kinds of vessels over the traditional matkas.
Kumhar Mandi has various potters who have been passed down the business of earthenware in their family.
Lakshman Chowdhary is one such potter who thinks that the business is depleting day by day as good mud has become hard to find. He believes that if the situation doesn’t improve soon the business will come to a standstill.
According to him the making of traditional ghadas has now stopped because the clay required for making it is no longer available.
This has made many potters like him in Dehradun switch to making only kulhads and other such smaller earthenware items.
These smaller products are more in demand during summers as cold drinks like lassi are often served in them.
If it rains, the temperature drops and fewer customers come looking for earthenware as water available is already cool during the rains.
Lakshmi, an earthenware seller sells the traditional vessels for Rs 70 and says that she has only increased the price by Rs five this year. This is because the people she buys the vessels from have also increased the rate to Rs 60. She sells five, ten and fifteen litre vessels with attached taps for Rs 200, Rs 250 and Rs 300 respectively.
Lallu Ram who has been in the business for fifty years says that he gets the supply of mud from Maowala.
He says that the price of a trolley of mud carrying about 70 cubic feet of mud is Rs 5,000. Potters in Dehradun get their supply of mud/clay from Saharanpur, Roorkee and Delhi. The prices have increased and the sales do not provide good profits. As a result of this, he buys products from Chandigarh and sells them in Dehradun.
As metropolitan cities see a shift in usage of plastic to more sustainable materials, earthenware is seen as a good option. However, this is not helping sales of potters in smaller cities who are struggling to keep their business afloat.
