30-Sep-2021
During our fact-finding mission in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, we came across Riaz Ul Haq, a weaver from the Kareemuddin Pusatti neighbourhood in Ghosi, Mau. When we met him in November 2020, he said that despite having a Bunkar Card and filling various forms for help under the weaver assistance scheme, he got…
15-Sep-2021
CJP’s fact finding mission analysing the plight of workers from the weaving industry and allied activities, in face of the Covid induced lockdown, has also come across several allegations of religion-based discrimination, even amidst a deadly pandemic. On November 29, 2020, our team came across Imtiaz*, an Aari worker who was forced to run a coffee stand…
01-Sep-2021
CJP’s fact-finding team studying the impact of the Lockdown on weavers in Uttar Pradesh’s Purvanchal region, found itself in Shahpur, Azamgarh in November 2020. Here, we came across Ahmed Ansari, who weaves and sells lungis or traditional waist cloth. He told us how the increasing cost of raw materials and electricity charges as well as…
07-Jul-2021
Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) have released a new report, ‘No Country for Workers’, highlighting the Covid-19 Second Wave, Local Lockdowns, and Migrant Worker Distress in India. You can read the entire report on their website by clicking here. CJP has been campaigning to ensure that migrant workers get their right to vote. So that…
09-Apr-2021
CJP की फैक्ट फाइंडिंग टीम आपके लिए लेकर आई है पूर्वांचल के बुनकरों की हताशा और निराशा की दास्तान. जो लॉकडाउन तथा प्रशासनिक उदासीनता के प्रभाव को उजागर कर रही है. Related: Lockdown Impact: Crushing debt, mounting bills Lockdown Impact: Weaver family drowning in debt Lockdown Impact: Weavers forced to become tea sellers! How Purvanchal’s…
31-Mar-2021
In November 2020, while conducting our fact-finding mission in the Koila Bazar locality of Chuhatta in Varanasi, we came across Murtaza Hussain, a Zardozi artisan. The lockdown has hit him hard. His future is uncertain, but he doesn’t want his children to suffer the same fate. “I will never teach them this work,” he says,…
26-Mar-2021
Varanasi is said to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Its citizens are a hardy lot, they always find a way to come out stronger from any adversity. But one has to ask why should they have to suffer to the point of taking up menial jobs just to survive? CJP team…
08-Mar-2021
The once thriving Banarasi weaving industry has come to a grinding halt in wake of the Covid-19 induced national lockdown. But despite the heritage status accorded to the traditional handloom industry that is a part of the Varanasi’s culture for more than a millennium, Banarasi weavers are struggling to make ends meet, mainly due to…
18-Nov-2020
Weaving is not just an industry in Uttar Pradesh’s Purvanchal region, it is the basis for a strong bond between people from two communities. Handcrafted textiles are the means through which craftsmen and women tell the story of their rich and vivid heritage. But now this bond appears to be weakening as the industry has been…
09-Oct-2020
On October 1, 2020 a three-Judge Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Indu Malhotra, DY Chandrachud and KM Joseph, quashed a Gujarat government notification exempting factories from paying overtime wages to workers and providing ideal working conditions to them amid the Covid-19 lockdown, on grounds of public emergency in Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha & Anr. v. State…