Mayawati
Tuesday responded positively to their demands. No taxes on
shoes up to Rs.300, a new shoe park on 250 acres of land for
manufacturers, and a new wholesale market were the sops the
chief minister announced.
A
substantial chunk of shoe production falls in the range of
Rs.75 to Rs.300 for a pair.
“The
sales tax department officials were harassing us whenever we
went to the Hing ki Mandi market to sell our product,” said
Raju, a shoemaker who runs a small unit in the Jagdishpura
area.
Many
like Raju hope they would be able to market their shoes
without paying taxes. Most shoemaking units in Agra are small
and are managed and run by families in tiny clusters spread
over different parts of the city.
Rough
estimates suggest over 200,000 people could be employed in
this business, according to Abhinaya Prasad of Adhar, an NGO
that runs training programmes to upgrade the skills of shoe
industry workers.
Prasad
says the decisions by the chief minister will definitely go a
long way in rejuvenating and reinvigorating the industry that
has for several years been struggling to survive, facing
threats not only from big manufacturers in the country but
also in China in this segment.
The
leather park will provide a common facilities centre, training
and upgrading skills centre, an exhibition hall, a central
marketing authority, which will outsource supply orders for
the small shoe manufacturers.
The
Rs.100-million project is to come up in Kiroali tehsil.
Shoe
manufacturers are more excited about the promise of the shoe
wholesale market that is expected to come up at the Normal
School compound, which will have around 500 shops.
It
will be one of the biggest such markets of leather shoes in
the country.
Buyers
from all parts of India will get to see the quality of
craftsmanship and place orders directly without a middleman,
according industry sources.
Ranjeev
Kochar, a shoe component supplier, says the “industry is
bound to grow in leaps and bounds”.
Shoe
component manufacturers are also upbeat about the resurgence
of a dying industry, comprising more than 10,000 small
shoemakers collectively producing more than 200,000 pairs a
day.
Netra
Pal Singh, an activist, says the new measures will positively
counter the threat from China whose shoes had invaded Indian
markets.
So
