UNB, Dhaka :
With only a few of days left for Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest religious festival of the Muslims, blacksmiths and the knife sharpeners across the capital are passing busy times in their works.
Akbar Hossain, a blacksmith in the capital’s Kawran Bazar, who was hammering on a burnt iron sheet to make a sharp knife called ‘chapati’, said, “We’ve got a contract to deliver 10 chapatis and 20 different kinds of knives from a butcher house at Khilgoan ahead of the Eid.”
“Before Eid-ul-Azha, we do not even have the time to breathe, whereas we stay almost workless for the rest of the year,” said a smiling Akbar, adding, “Although there’re wholesale buyers of knifes and other slaughtering tools all the year round, retail buyers swarm to us during Eid-ul-Azha.”
The price of these sharp tools varies with the quality and quantity of the iron. Currently, ‘chapatis’ are selling at Tk 350-800, butcher knives at Tk 150-250, small knives at Tk 50-150 and cleavers at Tk 250-450.
Some shops adjacent to the blacksmiths’ workshops at Karwan Bazar sell tree trunks, which are used to chop big pieces of meat and bone, at Tk 120-350 for general people. They also have strong trunks for professional butchers costing Tk 800-2000.
A buyer at Kawran Bazar, who is a butcher by profession and has a meat shop in the city’s New Market area, said he had come to buy several sharp tools as he had recruited some extra hands to work with him ahead of the Eid.
It is not only the blacksmiths of the city who are enjoying the pick of the season of their ironworks, knife sharpeners are also wandering on different city roads calling for knife sharpening as Eid-ul-Azha is very close.
They sharpen knives and cleavers at a cost of Tk 50 to 70 per piece.
Expressing disappointment, several owners of blacksmith stores at Kawran Bazar said the price of raw materials like iron, charcoal, wooden handle are increasing every year.
Most of the blacksmiths said ‘chapati’ and knives imported from China are getting popular these days and posing a threat to their business.
Subodh Kumar Karmaker, owner of a blacksmith store at Kawran Bazar, told UNB, “Iron costs Tk 150 to 220 per kg, whereas the price was Tk 40 to 50 per kg four-five years ago.”
He also said per sack of charcoal costs Tk 1000-1200 at present, whereas it was sold at Tk 400-500 just five years ago.
Mizan Patowary, another shop owner, said, “The workers are demanding high wages up to Tk 10,000 a month for the last couple of years, whereas the wages were Tk 2,500-3,500 five years earlier. The increased cost of production is discouraging us to continue the profession.”
When the blacksmiths are all smiling with their good business, those sacrifice animals to perform their religious obligation are worried as butchers remain in high demand during the Eid-ul-Azha. “Finding a butcher on the Eid day is very difficult…it’s luck to get one at an affordable rate,” said Engineer Mujibul Haque, a resident of Jasimuddin Road in the city.
