High price of silver affects anklet orders for Deepavali this year, say manufacturers

High price of silver has hit orders for anklet manufacturers in Salem this Deepavali season.

Salem receives orders for silver anklets from jewellery shops across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan during festival seasons. The orders keep artisans at the over 1,000 silver anklet manufacturing workshops functioning in Salem district, especially at Ponnammapet, Shevapet, Maniyanoor, Nethimedu, Sivathapuram, Panankadu, Elampillai, Nangavalli, Kondalampatti, Selathampatti, Solampallam, Suramangalam, and Fort busy during the season.

However, manufacturers said that with very few orders so far this year, the situation is similar to last year.

Salem Silver Anklet Manufacturers’ Handicraft Welfare Association president C. Sree Anandharajan said the silver price had touched ₹2 lakh a kg. Coupled with GST issues, the jewellers were neither giving the orders early or keeping stocks. Usually the manufacturers would get the orders at least a month before Deepavali. However, this year only a few orders were placed. Due to this, over 50,000 workers involved in anklet manufacturing did not have adequate work. Customers are waiting for the silver prices to fall, he said.

While small shops sold 50 to 100 grams of silver anklets a day, the bigger ones sold one kg to 1.5 kg of anklets a day now, Mr. Anandharajan said. The orders were mainly from Karnataka this year and not from the other southern States, he added.