Few takers for Channapatna’s wooden toys
BENGALURU: Around this time last year, toymaker Maya Organic had an export order to supply around 20,000 units of its Channapatna wooden toys.
The shipments normally go out by the first week of September to European nations and in other countries where demand is high around Christmas and New Year for the lacquered and handcrafted wooden products from Karnataka’s famous ‘toy town’ that lies between Bengaluru and Mysuru. Not so this year, as Karnataka’s toy story appears to slide into tragedy.
“We have sent feelers to all our buyers, but there is no response so far,” said Subba Rao, a senior sales and marketing official at Maya Organic.
Supported only by a fragment of online sales, the company has kept its workers away from factory floors and raised donations to fund their basic expenses. The plight of smaller toy-manufacturing units that operate as feeders to large distributors and retailers is worse.
Samiullah, who goes by one name, a 40-year-old toymaker, said some workers from his factory, which has shut down for the time being, have taken up temporary work as mechanics in garages and welding shops, and as agriculture labourers. Natraj, who used to have sales of around ₹8,000 per month, now refuses to take calls from unknown numbers, fearing they could be from debt collectors.
Channapatna’s toy industry, lining the narrow lanes of the small town, has faced multiple hardships in the past, from cheaper Chinese replicas of the trademark wooden figurines to the Karnataka government’s enthusiasm for a new and bigger toy clustejr in Koppala. As business shrank, the number of workers in Channapatna declined from around 15,000 in the late ’90s to just around 2,000 earlier this year. The state’s toy industry is valued at around $160 million. On Sunday, chief minister BS Yediyurappa tweeted that the proposed toy cluster in Koppala has the potential to create 40,000 jobs and attract over ₹5,000 crore in investments.
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