The stronger among them has a better luck as he gets a chance to “walk and trample” the cotton inside a half-oval shaped wooden plate and pocket Rs 200 in two days by completing the process. It involves gruelling hard work, but is paying well.
“This is where we were, we are and we dont' know where we’ll be,” sighed Md Shaktidar who has sent his son out to Gujarat for better pay. “I look forward to his homecoming in the next two years or so. He has learnt a lot of other skills in weaving there and we may see better days ahead.”
Shantipur, a bustling weavers’ colony, has traditionally returned Congress candidates, but that has hardly changed their lot. Workers here comprise more than sixty per cent of the total electorate. Polls come and go, but their lives haven’t changed. Neither has there been a marked increase in their daily wage.
“The state government has failed to complete the handloom census. As a result, no weaver has any identity card so far, robbing them of the opportunity to avail the Central funds,” cribbed Ajay Dey, four-time MLA and five-time civic chairman of Shantipur where two of every three or four households have one or the other linked with weaving industry. Amidst a flurry of slugfests and a litany of promises, weavers are wary of their fate. Congress president Sonia Gandhi held out some hope during her 15-minute speech here on Wednesday. In the neighbouring Ranaghat constituency, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee blamed the 34 years of the Left rule for their plight. And barely four hours after Sonia Gandhi’s rally, CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury put the ball back in the court of Sonia’s UPA government for the present misery of the weavers at Shantipur.
The Left has consistently won between 10 and 12 of the total 15 seats in Nadia district since 1980s.The Trinamool made a debut with two seats in the 2006 Assembly poll. However, had not the BJP cut into the anti-Left votebank in a major way, Trinamool would have won at least five more seats. The blame squarely came on the Congress where rebels helped the BJP to eat into the TMC voteshare.
However, despite an alliance (between TMC and Congress) in place and a marked increase in TMC vote since the last Lok Sabha and civic polls, Congress rebels who have dug in their heels against TMC, are still a worrying factor for Mamata Banerjee when the district goes to the polls on Saturday in the second phase.
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