There is a good local market for these colourful gamchas. As the wages in Bengal are the lowest, the product cost is low and traders send a large number of gamchas to other states such as Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, where they are in great demand. The price is a big factor that pushes the sales, and as consumers cannot afford higher prices this reflects in the deteriorating quality.
Between Tantipur and Rejilapara villages, there were almost 25,000 weavers, mostly women, weaving gamchas. However, to further reduce the cost, gamcha production is slowly moving to the power looms, operated by men. A single man handles the production of two to three power looms. Production has increased, and the cost of production is marginally lower, but the women who have been weaving gamchas are being deprived of their livelihood. They are now reduced to making bobbins for power loom production, and are earning less than they did when they were weaving, which itself was meagre.
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