Lucknow, India, Feb. 20--When it comes to exclusive hand-knotted woollen carpets, 'Made in Bhadohi' is the final word in quality carpets the world over, according to the Times of India.
With Bhadohi's annual carpet exports exceeding Rs 1,800 crore--65 percent of the country's carpet exports--you'd imagine Bhadohi would be a household name.
But, ignominy is not the cause of Bhadohi's ire. “There are no carpet showrooms here. The infrastructure is poor...roads, electricity, civic amenities, everything is in a bad shape here. Basically the quality of life is very poor in Bhadohi,” says Omkar Nath Mishra, the district magistrate.
It's not surprising then, that foreign buyers avoid coming down to Bhadohi.
“Now customers call us to Delhi or Mumbai and this is a major handicap as we cannot carry our complete range of products along. This hits potential sales. Also, the roads from Bhadohi to our production centres are so bad that no customer wants to visit the centres,” complains Raja Ram Gupta who has been exporting carpets out of Bhadohi for the past 45 years.
“No less than 65 percent of the country's carpet exports are from Bhadohi,” says Vijay Sinha, assistant director of the Carpet Export Promotion Council, Bhadohi.
“All other carpet manufacturing areas in India specialise in a particular variety of carpets, but in Bhadohi, all varieties are manufactured--be they Jaipuri, Indo-Nepali, tufted, hand-knotted, etc,” says Sinha. He believes this is the reason why Bhadohi is the most sought-after source of carpets.
