KANPUR: Why are boat makers facing tough days amidst the Coronavirus? Their earnings have reduced to zero in the absence of demand from the buyers. Not many families are depending on the boat making business in the city but nearly one hundred families of boat making artisans live here.
Lamenting at the sudden decline in their particular profession owing to more than two-month-long lockdown one boat maker pointed out that we were badly facing hard days due to dearth of the customers. Thereby this trend had brought our position to a very wretched level.
He also did not fail to say that it was really becoming hard to sustain our families. When we were neither getting a good quality of wooden rafter as material nor clients we were forced to sit idle. As the seasonal rains have started pouring in there was some possibility of an order for the boats.
The boat crafters were generally based around the city's famous Sarsaiya Ghat. They had been delivering boats to the buyers in the whole of the country.
A young artisan told that it takes normally three to four days in finishing the boat. Replying on query over its cost it was revealed that the cost of one boat comes between Rs 7000 and Rs 7500. However, the artisans did not easily disclose the profit they used to charge at the time of sale. They were unanimous in saying that at least around Rs 1000 was taken as profit. It could be even more in view of hard labour executed to prepare the boat.
