In the current times, a wave against Chinese products is running through the people across the country whether it be for the boycott of digital applications or manufactured goods.
The people of Dehradun including local customers and the shopkeepers are not untouched by this wave. They are also showing their support to Indian manufactured products ahead of the festival of Rakshabandhan.
According to a shopkeeper of Paltan Bazaar, Ranjan Sharma, more than 90 per cent of Rakhis available in the market are manufactured in India. He said, "I am not saying 100 per cent because possibly some shopkeepers might be selling some leftover Chinese Rakhis of the last year. However, the people are quite cautious this time while buying Rakhis as they check the labels and prints to confirm the origin of the manufactured Rakhis."
He said that the Rakhis that glow, shine or have any kind of music or audios are mostly made in China but this year, one will find it harder to get such Rakhis in the market.
Another shopkeeper Vinay Singh informed that most of the Rakhis in Dehradun are ordered from Kolkata, West Bengal.
He said that the quality of the Rakhi of Kolkata is quite good and the customers prefer it too. On the question of whether any Rakhis are commercially made in nearby areas of Dehradun, most of the shopkeepers replied that possibly a few handmade Rakhis might be made by some locals but the production of Rakhi is not done on a large scale in Uttarakhand.Meanwhile, the shopkeepers also informed that the sale of Rakhis is quite low this year. "First the Covid-19 pandemic and now these regular weekend lockdowns in Dehradun has caused serious damage to our business. We already ordered about 40 per cent less Rakhis this time but we have still not sold 20 per cent of our order," said a local shopkeeper.
Some shopkeepers also stated that several people have not bought the Rakhis to send by post to their siblings outside the district in the current scenario and even if some people did, they are buying cheap Rakhis as nobody wants to spend much on Rakhi this year.
Keeping an optimistic outlook in the present crisis, some local shopkeepers stated that there is hardly a week left to sell these Rakhis but since all the Rakhis are from India, they can possibly be used the next year.