 "Sivakasi Factory")
The fire cracker industry is witnessing a drop in business this year, despite the restrictions on Chinese firecrackers in the country, owing to the anti-cracker campaigns run by schools, resident welfare associations (RWAs) and others, according to an ASSOCHAM analysis.
The traders have seen a sharp decline in sale of about 20% year-on-year and have also almost halved the amount of crackers they used to get in wake of poor sales, it said.
A survey conducted among 250 firecracker traders across 10 cities including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Mumbai said that apart from Chinese firecrackers, growing environmental awareness, rising cost of living, growing tendency amid people to save their hard-earned money rather than spoiling it on burning crackers, paucity of time, traffic congestions during festive period, and others issues have together dented this business over the years.
"About hundreds of units in Sivakasi have shut their shop owing to intense campaigns and growing sales of China-made crackers over the years. It is estimated that about 30,000 people have lost their livelihood," said DS Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM.
There are about 800 licensed firecracker making units in Sivakasi with a total size of about Rs 2,500 crore which has been facing heat from China's influence that has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years, he added.
