Shabir, his father and forefathers have all been shoemakers. “We were called master craftsmen,” says the 44-year-old. Not anymore, he shrugs. Prod him for the reason and “DeMon” is in the detail. “Gradually, (post November 8) orders dried up. Then one day traders said they had no money to pay us; that demand had plummeted.” Shabir is a fruit vendor today. “I make about Rs 300 a day — just enough to feed my family.”
A year after 8/11/2016, Agra, which employs 3.5 lakh shoemakers, has yet to recover from the “DeMonic” shock. Most of the shoemakers are skilled labourers in the unorganised shoe industry. “The city supplies handmade shoes to 60% of the country. But even a year after the note ban, business has yet to show signs of recovery; problems have been aggravated by the GST pain,” says Gagan Das Ramani, president, Agra Shoe Factories Federation and mahamantri of Agra Vyapar Mandal. “Being the president of the federation, I know hundreds of shoemakers who have switched to pulling rickshaws or working as daily wagers.”
It is not just the shoe industry that has not recovered from notebandi. Enter the lanes of Gokulpura, a hub of marble traders, and one witnesses empty shops “Business is almost finished. It was a dull Diwali. We hardly had orders for corporate gifts this year. Handicraft thrives on excess cash. And people are in no mood to splurge…Whatever little recovery we saw was soon wiped out by GST,” laments Sunil Kumar Verma, president of Agra Handicrafts Association.