'This is the only work I know': Hyderabadi bangle makers struggle to survive

With patches of peeling paint, the tiny pink-coloured room located in the interiors of Nasheman Nagar in Hyderabad is empty. The room attached to a two-bedroom house, which is usually used as a workshop for lac bangle designing has been non-functional for the past month, leaving the eight women working there without a job.

Many women in Nasheman Nagar, Aman Nagar, Talab Katta, Shaheen Nagar, Sultan Shahi, and other adjoining areas in the old city of Hyderabad, design and make lac bangles. This cottage industry, traditionally, has scores of Muslim women engaged in it. But, the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown last year, has had a reeling effect on the income of these women.

Usually, the women are given an order by a retailer and provided with raw materials like gems and glittering stones, which they use to design and finish the lac bangles. They return the end products to the retailer, who sells the bangles in Laad Bazaar in Charminar, which is famous for selling a variety of bangles. The amount of work the women get depends on the demand for bangles in the market, it increases during Ramzan and wedding season. These bangles also get exported to Maharashtra and several other states.

However, because of the pandemic, the demand for bangles has become less, orders have stopped, and the women have not earned any money since February. They are unable to support their families. “I have been designing bangles since the age of 15, this is the only work I know,” says 20-year-old Heena Begum.

Before the onset of the pandemic, Heena was earning around Rs 200 per day, now she is unemployed. “I have not paid rent for the past three months, the landlord has warned me already,” says Heena. “The pandemic has left us in deep trouble.”

For the effort and time which they invest in making the bangles, the return is poor. But, many of the women say that it was still a job that kept them fed. “I usually started my work at 7 am after doing my namaz and a breakfast of tea and biscuits,” says Zakeera Begum, a resident of Nasheman Nagar. “Sometimes I would be so busy working, I’d skip my lunch and dinner.”

Zakeera Begum

Zakeera took up bangle making, following the death of her husband in 2013. With four children to take care of, Zakeera worked tirelessly.  “Only if I made Rs 250 per day, I could sustain my family. So I worked with this target in mind, without taking any breaks,” says Zakeera. Being unemployed has put Zakeera under immense stress. Though a widow, Zakeera does not receive the Rs 2,000 pension provided by the state government, due to lack of proper paperwork.

Zakeera is now contemplating whether to send her young children to work or find another job herself. “Though my eyes hurt and my wrist have become stiff, bangle designing was still a job which I could do at home and attend to daily chores as well, now where will I find another job?” she asks. 

Now, to recover from the crushing blow of COVID-19, some retailers have reduced the amount they pay the bangle makers by nearly Rs 1.50 per bangle, which greatly impacts the women. “A fall of one rupee means that I lose Rs 50 per day. That is a huge pay decrease,” says Zakeera. 

Heena Begum demonstrating her bangle designing skill

Ahmed, a retailer from Laad Bazar, who runs the workshop says, “Business has been dull. So, I had to put a hold on bangle manufacturing. We will resume the activity when business picks up.” 

The retailers say that another major reason for less work and less pay is because of lac bangles being brought in from Jaipur, which is flooding the market. “It is true that the business saw a decline last year, but the business now has picked up pace. In fact, Laad Bazaar was the first market to make a resurrection,” says Chiranjeevi Sandeep Kumar of Sapna Bangles, Pearls and Jewellers. “The reason for unemployment (among lac bangle makers in Hyderabad) is largely because of lac bangles being imported from Jaipur and Maharashtra. Jaipur is practically killing the Hyderabad market. Only 20% of the bangles being sold are manufactured here. The scene of bangle making has changed in the last ten years.” 

The unsustainable model of bangle manufacturing has prompted the women to seek the government’s help. The women have appealed to the government to include their field of work in the Aasara pension scheme. The government recently included beedi workers as the beneficiaries of the pension scheme. “Since we too fall in the same category as that of the Beedi workers, we should also be provided with a pension. That will support us greatly,” says Heena.

Activists working for poverty elimination say that the government should make an intervention to provide a sustainable work model for these women. Anjaneyulu, Actionaid, Telangana Regional Manager, says, “The Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) should introduce some programmes where they train these women with a different skill set or provide loans for their own business. Hundreds of women survive on this job, and are underpaid, so the government has to acknowledge them and provide help with specific programmes designed to root out this problem.”