Demonetisation effect in Varanasi - daily sale of Banarasi saris down from Rs 20 crore to Rs 4 crore

One of the items associated with Varanasi is its Banarasi sari and, this famed product has seen its business shrink from Rs 20 crore to Rs 4 crore per day and this city is the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The familiar sight of wholesale buyers has practically died down in the localities where the sari are made ever since the note recall was announced on November 8 and curbs placed on withdrawals from bank accounts.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 26 December 2016.

Varanasi has nearly one lakh-plus handloom weavers and they are not able to find buyers any more because it's a cash market. The saris would sell for anything between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 and, now, the weavers are ready to sell them for as low as Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500, without any profit.
The art of creating Banarasi saris thrived during the Mughal period because the nobles and the rich loved to cover themselves in silk, gold and silver. Way back in the 14th century, artisans from Iran and Iraq came to Varanasi and settled down here.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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