Manja makers shut shop as Chinese lot runs market

HYDERABAD: It was a year ago that Mohammad Rahmat, a 30-year-old

manja

maker from

Old City

, saw his world turning upside down.


For Rahmat, popularly known as Chotu in Dabeerpura’s Patang Market, the four months from November to February brought good tidings a few years ago. However, an increasing demand of Chinese manja in the last couple of years has forced Rahmat’s family, which has been in the traditional cotton manja making business for 70-years, to look for new business avenues. The family now has opened a tiffin store, selling idly and dosa.

Traditional manja makers in the patang markets of Dabeerpura, Gulzar Houz and Dhoolpet say the market has seen a major slump as demand for Chinese manja increases by leaps despite a nation-wide ban. The Centre had banned Chinese manja and other non-biodegradable threads made of plastic. On the other hand, traditional manja is prepared using gum, aloe vera, soap, egg , rice and glass powder and then the pulp is rubbed against regular thread to give a fine character. About 200 families in Dabeerpura, Gulzaar Houz and Dhoolpet involved in manja making spend six to eight months preparing the thread. Apart from being more dangerous, the Chinese manja is also expensive compared to the traditional variety.

“A bundle of Chinese manja is sold for ₹80 while the traditional variety costs ₹20. And yet, every customer asks for the dangerously sharp Chinese Manja,” informed Rafeeq Ahmed, a wholesale Manja and patang dealer at Gulzaar Houz. More than 60% families have dropped out of the traditional manja making business owing to lack of profits, he added.