Women pickle-makers preserve their craft amid lockdown

HYDERABAD: A small number of women pickle-makers have continued their work amidst fear and chaos due to the recent lockdown in Shikarpur city, known for its handmade pickle manufacturing in Sindh.

Reports gathered by The News from community activists showed that the pickle makers could not access the market due to the lockdown; however, some were continuing production of the delicacy as they do not want to stay idle. Many have been associated with the craft for generations and find it difficult to do nothing and stay at home.

They depend on particular clients locally, in the city and neighbourhood, including shops where they sell a small quantity of their products and earn a little during the lockdown. Thus, they have continued working individually at homes for sustainability.

There are around 50—60 workshops, which hire 100—400 women each, depending on capacity and equipment, for cutting, pealing vegetables and processing the product. They use mainly carrot, turnip, chilli, lemon, onion and other vegetables for a variety of products.

After processing at workshops, the pickled products are then packed in different sizes of bottles, polythene bags and buckets, depending on the market criteria.

Currently, these home-based women pickle makers are waiting to receive raw mango, which was a high demand product in the pickle business. It would take a few days to get raw mango, as the season was just beginning for the product in the area.

Parial Mari, a local grower and activist of Shikarpur, who keeps a close eye over the agriculture and business activities in the area, said a large number of workers, associated with pickle manufacturing workshops have reportedly been asked to stay idle at homes after following the novel coronavirus. It has created problems for many, who depend solely on this work.

Besides workshops, he said women had established small-scale home-based pickle manufacturing units to prepare a variety of pickles for sale. These women supply their products to the city shops in bulk at the price of Rs50-Rs60/kg, which the shop owners sold at high rates after packing and labelling and using bottles of different sizes. “Little bottles of a variety of pickles are sold at Rs100-Rs120, depending on product.”

These women-led small-scale workshops use earthen jars for the processing. That was why the homemade pickles were tastier and delicious compared to the ones produced by workshops. The homemade products have high demand in the market, locally and abroad, the community activist said.

Some of the women, despite this lockdown have continued work from home to offer delicious food to the clients, individually as well as to the shops.

Many women workers in the city and neighbourhood have haunting experiences of the recent devastating flood disasters, which caused displacement and destruction everywhere. The disasters too had compelled them to stay idle for some time, and they resumed work after the return of normalcy.

Shikarpur is known as a gateway to all parts of the country and neighbouring countries like Iran and Afghanistan. Traders use the same routes for the sale of pickles.

In normal days, all markets, including major cities of Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Quetta in Balochistan and parts of Punjab display these products for sale. There is a large network of suppliers to sell the product. Besides this, Shikarpur-made pickles also go to different countries, including United Arab Emirate (UAE), Iran and Afghanistan.

The most popular variety is of mango pickle, which has different recipes. Apart from it, mixed pickle, comprising carrots, turnips, onions, cauliflower, chickpeas, garlic, green chilli and lemon have a higher demand in the market.

These pickle varieties have nutrition value and people consume it fondly with their routine food items at homes as well as at restaurants. There are two popular varieties made with mustard oil and oil-free pickles, which have highly sour and spicy taste. The oil-made pickle has an expiry of one year or more, while the oil-free product lasts for only three months.

The pickle makers do not use any chemical in this product as they are already aware about its health effects. Despite there being a potential to manufacture high quality pickle for local and international markets, the manufacturers in the city said the government has never offered any support to them to expand their work, so they could earn more for their families. However, they continue to make high quality products, and contribute to the country’s economy.

Some activists believe that this particular industry provides source of income to a large number of skilled and non-skilled women through their different tasks at workshops, like cutting, pealing and processing.

But, they said, social security was one of the major issues faced by a large number of these workers. “There is no mechanism on the side of the government to follow the rules and regulations to benefit the workforce under the social security net. For example, a large number of women workers associated with this industry have been compelled to sit idle without compensation.” They should be covered under the social security mechanism for survival in this difficult situation, the activists said.