Mahali people busy making fruit baskets

People of the Mahali community in Birol of Dinajpur are passing the busy time making bamboo and cane made baskets for carrying fruits the peak season for summer fruits – Bangla month of Jaishtha, also fugitively called as Madhumas – begins.

Plenty of summer fruits – mainly mango, lychee and jackfruit – are available in the market and the growers, traders and suppliers are in need of a huge quantity of baskets to carry and supply the fruits.

Mahalis are marking making baskets with bamboos and canes for generations and their products have a great demand in the markets of northern districts

Spot visit to village Joynagar in Khanpur union of Birol found that around 25 families of the Mahali community are busy making the baskets.

They are always busy preparing bamboo and cane made baskets, kula and dala round the year for business and household use to maintain their livelihood.

They alleged the craft business has declined due to less profit, rampant use of plastic and increasing prices of the raw materials – bamboo and cane. Many of them opted for alternative sources of income leaving the craft as they found it difficult to survive in their traditional occupation.

Local administration, however, assured them to offer all sorts of support and helps to make their conventional job vibrant.

Seasonal juicy fruits lychee and mango are appearing in markets. Farmers start plucking the fruits from the orchards. Traders and commoners need a huge supply of baskets (locally termed as jhuri) and dala to carry the produce from the orchards to the markets and elsewhere. Mahali people are working day and night to prepare the bamboo-made products to meet the demand of the season.

A villager, Biren Mahali, 55, said they are busy preparing the baskets as the season of juicy fruits begins.

“The orchard owners from adjacent upazilas - Birampur, Nababgonj and Fulbari including other upazilas of the district come to our village to buy the products. We have received advance order of baskets from the fruit orchard owners,” he also said.

Basanti Mahali, 50, a housewife, said, “I saw my grandparents and parents making bamboo items and there was an excellent market of bamboo made domestic products during their time.”

Gone are the days! She earns now Tk 100 on an average daily while it was Tk 300-400 even a few years ago.

“Many of our male members in the village left the ancestral job and joined other occupations like pulling rickshaws or driving autos and farm works,” she also said.

The demand of the products is decreasing gradually due to the rampant use of plastic products. People are using plastic carrots though the bamboo-made products are hard and solid enough.

Moreover, the community people usually lack the capital and cash to buy bamboo and cane for making the product. It became very tough for them to survive on the job. The price of bamboo usually increases a bit during the season.

They said if they could have bought bamboo before the beginning of the season, they would have got more profit.

It would be helpful and an advantage for them to continue the traditional job, if the bank and the non-government agencies offered them loans on easy terms, Basanti noted.

A worker, Shanti Mahali said prices of the ingredients- bamboo, cane and other materials increased in the local markets while their product price has not been increased accordingly.

Akmal Miah, a fruit trader, said, people are getting all kinds of plastic items at low cost, so the use of bamboo made baskets and jhuri is declining.

Birol Upazila Nirbahi Officer Parimol Kumar said Mahali people who are involved with crating are artisans as their work is a part of our culture and heritage.

The government will provide support to enliven the traditional job of the indigenous people. Families of the community have been rehabilitated in the government houses under the Ashsryan project. They were also given food, incentives and other support of the state.

The administration is encouraging the traders and businessmen to use bamboo and cane made products for carrying fruits instead of plastic carrots, the UNO noted.