JOIN US'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign: Flag sales skyrocket, traders struggle to meet demand
As the celebratory days for the Centre's 'Har Ghar Tiranga' campaign are nearing, the sale of tricolour has risen manifolds in the national capital, leaving traders and manufacturers scrambling to meet the pent-up demands.
Gulshan Khurana (63), a wholesale trader from Delhi's Sadar Bazaar has been in the business of supplying national flags for over 50 years, but has never witnessed such an enormous demand for the tricolour in the past.
Traders have claimed that the sale of all kinds of tricolours has increased 50 times since the announcement of the campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 22. However, the demand for medium size and national flags made up of satin is at an all-time high.
Under the campaign, the Central government is aiming to have at least 20 crore flags atop houses from August 13 to 15 to mark 75 years of India’s Independence.
Khurana was in the United States of America (USA) on vacation when he started receiving dozens of calls from the buyers for large orders of flags.
"I am in this business for over 50 years, you can say since childhood. But I have never seen demands for Indian flags like this. My phone does not stop ringing," he said, adding that he had to rush back to complete the orders.
To meet the demands, Khurana is manufacturing only two sizes -- 16X24 and 18X27-- of the tricolour or 'tiranga', as it is called in Hindi.
"We are only producing two types of tricolours so that all the resources can be utilised in making the flags with the highest demands," he told PTI.
"Every day we are producing around 15 lakh flags but the demand is even much higher. The orders are coming in from all over India as their is a shortage of flags in the country. So people are getting flags from wherever they can. We have just sent an order of a lakh flags to Goa," he said, adding that despite working day and night, they are unable to meet the sky-high demands.
"I am receiving orders of crore of flags every day. We have only been able to fulfil a part of it only. We have tried to fulfil all orders but it is difficult," he said.
Meanwhile, Anil, flag manufacturer-cum trader said that he has shifted workers from his other manufacturing units to flag manufacturing.
"Ever since the announcement of the campaign, our sales have gone up manifolds. We are working overtime and have also shifted workers from my other manufacturing units into one that is making tricolour."
"The sales have increased 50 times. This was a sudden surge. We did not expect the demands to increase this much. We are expecting sales to increase further," he added.