Silver anklet manufacturers in Salem witness meagre orders for Pongal festival season

Salem silver anklet manufacturers face 25% order reduction for Pongal festival due to natural disasters and unexpected rain.

The silver anklet manufacturers in Salem claimed that for this year’s Pongal festival season, they only got around 25% of orders like last year’s Deepavali festival and it was received in the last 10 days.

The Salem district is one of the leading silver anklet manufacturers in the country, and 11,000 silver anklet manufacturing units are functioning in various parts of the districts, including Shevapet, Nethimedu, Maniyanoor, Kondalampatti, Sivathapuram, Panankadu, Nangavalli, Gugai, Ponnammapet, and Ammapet.

Through these units, over one lakh people got employment directly and indirectly especially during festival seasons like Deepavali, Onam, and Pongal. During these festival seasons, they get lakhs of anklet orders from various States, including Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

But last year, Onam and Deepavali festivals were not as fruitful for the silver anklet manufacturers and orders drastically reduced due to various reasons, including natural disasters.

Salem Silver Anklet Manufacturers’ Handicraft Welfare Association president C. Sree Anandharajan claimed that the three festival events (Onam, Deepavali, and Pongal) usually give good business for the anklet manufacturers. But out of these three, two festivals did not provide enough orders and we received only around 25% of the orders.

“We believed that during the Pongal festival, we would get good business. We expected an order for manufacturing around two lakh of silver anklets. But, received orders for around 50,000, which is 25%. Like the Onam and Deepavali festivals, manufacturers sustained setbacks for the Pongal festival also due to unexpected rain.” he said.

Apart from Delta districts, this year, rain poured heavily in most of the districts like Tiruvannamalai, Krishnagiri, and Vellore. So, the usual orders from these districts came down drastically.