GAYA: Makar Sankranti will be celebrated on Tuesday and Wednesday when tilkut will accompany the main course of dahi-chuda (curd and flattened rice) of a vast section of people across the state. However, this Sankranti too has failed to bring much cheer to the nearly 400 families engaged in tilkut making in different localities of Gaya as their long-pending demand for the grant of cottage industry status is yet to be conceded.
If granted the cottage industry status, the makers of famous Gaya tilkut will be entitled to cheap power, subsidized fuel, low-interest bank finance, better marketing options and inclusion in the Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana list.
Incidentally, tilkut, besides Vishnupad temple and Renaissance Cultural centre are regarded Gaya's icons, giving the place a distinct identity.
According to Lalji Prasad, leader of tilkut makers, despite several petitions to the government and assurances given by former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi, little has been done to provide state support to tilkut making, gradually making it a less remunerative occupation.
If non-award of cottage industry status was not enough, the nearly 200-year-old tilkut industry of Gaya has been visited by a host of other problems caused by rising input cost and migration of skilled workers. Poaching by confectionary manufacturers of Kolkata, Patna etc, according to insiders, has of late been engineering large-scale migration of skilled workers, thereby putting a question mark over the business's survival at its birthplace. Whether it be Kolkata, Patna or any other part of the country, locally-made tilkut is given the Gaya tag to make it acceptable to tilkut lovers.
A mix of lintel, sugar/gur etc in the right proportions, heated at an optimum temperature in cold but dry weather, skillfully hammered and then moulded into biscuit-like form, the tilkut protocol is extremely sensitive.
The Gaya tilkut makers have to borrow money at market rate, thereby diminishing the profit. Moreover, by bringing tilkut under the ambit of Food Safety Act, the government has made things more difficult for the tilkut makers as it now requires licence and inspection by health officials.
As tilkut comes in the category of 'no milk food item', its export potential is said to be very high. But for export promotion too, the Gaya tilkut makers look to the government for help. Gaya tilkut stands at the New Delhi trade fairs have been doing good business over the years and all that is required is to market it properly both at the national and international levels.
Due to lack of finance, tilkut makers cannot engage in bulk and advance purchase of items like lintel, sugar/jaggery. The wholesalers of these items charge arbitrary prices when the tilkut demand peaks around Makar Sankranti.
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