Days after Narendra Modi calls for buying khadi, sales pick up across India

“Some people even came to purchase a handkerchief made of khadi,” says Shriniwas Jannu, one of the owners of Janata Khadi Bhandar, which is perhaps the oldest shop in the city — set up in 1946 — that responded to Mahatma Gandhi’s call of adopting Swadeshi clothes.

“After Morarji Desai who was always attired in Khadi, it is Narendra Modi who has now called for a revival of khadi,” says Shyam Jannu, the 70-year-old proprietor of the Janata Khadi Bhandar. “In just one and a half months, we have sold Khadi clothes worth Rs 20 lakh — at least a 30 per cent rise since last year,” he adds.

While khadi is promoted every year to mark October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, the sale continues till Nehru Jayanti on November 14. This year, especially after Narendra Modi gave a call for promoting khadi, the government outlets run by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) have also showed a rise in sales. Vandana Dhamdkar, manager at Pune District Khadigram Udyog Sahkar, said this season they registered daily sales of approximately Rs 50,000.

At KVIC headquarters in Mumbai, officials are excited that despite not placing advertisements there has been a substantial rise in the sales after Modi’s appeal. “In Mumbai, 138 stalls at KVIC HQ made a daily sale of Rs 7- 8 lakh this year. Last year, the sale had averaged Rs 2-3 lakhs,” said Rajan Babu, Director, Marketing, KVIC.

“According to initial reports, within 10 days of Modi’s call, the Khadi Bhandar at Connaught Place in New Delhi started registering daily sales of around Rs 50 lakh while there has been a definite rise across 7,000 outlets across the country,” he added.

Yashwant Baramatikar, Maharashtra Director of KVIC, said awareness programmes promoting khadi among youngsters had been launched. M T Wakode, Director of State Village Industries Development at KVIC, said scheme for enhancing productivity and competitiveness of the khadi industry had been undertaken by it by opting for the market development assistance (MDA) programme instead of the earlier rebate system (where discounts were directly offered to customers).

“Khadi artisans will now benefit under the MDA scheme,” he said.

In 2012-13, there were 21,119 khadi artisans. The production of khadi was to the tune of Rs 761.93 crore and employment was generated for at least 10.71 lakh people who earned Rs 459.18 crore, officials said, adding that schemes had now been launched to strengthen the khadi institutions and generate employment, especially in Naxal areas.