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Jalandhar: Jalandhar has a small part in many of India’s great sporting moments, from the sticks of the Indian hockey team. wielded To win a bronze medal with the bat in the Tokyo Olympics, along with great cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni Beat His winning sixes.
The city of Punjab is renowned as one of the largest sports manufacturing hubs in the country, churning out everything from pro-grade boxing gloves to the balls you lost while playing street cricket.
Post Covid, however, not so many people are buying what Jalandhar has to offer. ThePrint spoke to business owners and workers in Jalandhar who said the sporting goods industry is in serious trouble. However, government officials say the issue is being exaggerated.
Ashish Anand, President, Jalandhar Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporters told ThePrint that the industry has come down dramatically from around Rs 2,000 crore pre-Covid to just Rs 200 crore.
“At present there are 500 micro, small and medium enterprises functioning in the city, but about 40 per cent of the total manufacturing units have closed shop in Jalandhar since the start of the pandemic,” said Anand. Some manufacturers said they had to cut jobs by 70-80 per cent as production halved.
However, according to the government, these figures are erroneous. Punjab Principal Secretary Commerce and Industry Tejveer Singh told ThePrint that “to my knowledge there is no crisis”.
“In 2020-2021, the turnover of the industry was Rs 2,000 crore, of which Rs 500 crore was the export cost. There is no way the industry has shrunk to Rs 200 crore, things would have been really, really bad,” Singh said, adding that he recently held a meeting with industry representatives, who inquired about any such concerns. not flagged.
“Right now, their number one demand is to find space to expand a separate industrial park so that they can increase their production. People would be dying if 70 percent jobs were cut!” he added.
However, when ThePrint visited the manufacturing areas of Jalandhar, the atmosphere was calm.
Read also: Small Units Pack Up, Weavers Prefer to Be Guards: How Covid Ruined Karnataka Apparel Industry
‘Big job cuts’
A large segment of Jalandhar’s sporting goods industry – which includes footwear, helmets and other personal gear – caters to the school-aged group.
Manufacturers told ThePrint that while people returned to the gym, demand for equipment for sports such as boxing has increased, but the demand for team sports gear has not. He says that the biggest reason for this is that the schools are still not functioning normally and the children are not engaged in the playground as much.
“After Covid, people are not playing outdoor sports. The teams engaged in making sports equipment are badly battered. Unless children play team sports or go out to play again, nothing can happen,” said Ashish Anand, who is also the managing director of sporting goods company Anand & Anand. “Our production has come down by 70-80 per cent and we have to cut 400 jobs,” he said.
Beat All Sports proprietor Somnath Kohli also said that unless schools resume normal functioning, the sports business will not recover.
“Everything is up to the schools… even the sports academies are largely closed. Unless they open, our business will continue to suffer,” he said.
Like Anand, Kohli also said that he had to lay off employees, although he did not specify how many. Anoop Anand, managing director and partner of Anand Ko Sporting Foundation, which makes boxing and MMA equipment, also said they were forced to cut jobs by 50 per cent.
‘About 50% reduction’
The worst affected are daily wage workers in Jalandhar’s sporting goods industry, many of whom are shoe makers in small shops and factories.
Sarita Devi, a 32-year-old migrant worker from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, told ThePrint that her earnings have come down drastically since the pandemic.
“I get Rs 4 for every shoe upper that I make. Before the lockdown, I used to make up to 100 shoes a day, but about two months ago I could not even buy food to eat. I can’t do any other work because I have kids and no other skills,” she said.
Devi was working out of her house in Jalandhar’s Bank Colony in Model Town area.
Anil Ambedkar, a resident of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh and working as a police station for the last 25 years, said he was forced to go back to his village in UP during the lockdown. “There has been a drop of about 50 per cent in work.
green shoots
Despite the current difficulties, many manufacturers said they were hopeful about the development of new opportunities.
India’s success at the Olympics has led to increased interest in sports such as boxing, hockey and javelin throw, and a concomitant increase in demand for equipment.
Kohli told ThePrint that the demand for hockey sticks went up 90 percent after the men’s team won a bronze medal in Tokyo, while Anup Anand said the popularity of boxing has increased with Lovlina Borgohain’s medal.
“Nobody used to take interest in hockey, but even in this covid time, my sales have increased by 90 percent. After Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal, suddenly people got interested in the javelin. You go to any sports equipment shopkeeper, he will have at least one javelin for sale at his shop,” Kohli said.
Decathlon, the huge French sporting goods retailer, is also shipping business to Jalandhar for mainstream sports equipment.
Ashish Anand told ThePrint that the company is awarding equipment-manufacturing contracts for the game that he had not previously completed. “They want equipment for horse riding, rock climbing, camping, polo, water polo… This will give a big boost to the industry,” said Anand.
(Edited by Aswari Singh)
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