Traditional ornament: Banjarans racing against the tide as fashion trends evolve

Traditional sellers toil to make ends meet for family

ISLAMABAD: With new dazzling jewellery flooding markets and fashion trends evolving, the demand for traditional bangles has relatively plummeted in recent years.

In normal days, the bangle-selling women carrying baskets on their heads struggle to earn enough to make ends meet.

The bangle-selling women, who are commonly known ‘banjarans”, say that they have to walk miles from place to place and door-to-door in search of potential customers to sell plastic and glass bangles only to earn a pittance. Though their bangles are of high quality, they have to present numerous explanations to the ‘reluctant’ customers to rope them in to buy the bangles in different colours and designs.

The customers are often suspicious that these banjarans sell inferior quality bangles at costly rates.

On special occasions, especially on Eid their business shows an upsurge as they ‘succeed’ to persuade as many customers — in certain localities — to try and buy their bangles.

Noreen and Sattan, two nomadic women, who sell bangles together mostly in old city areas of Rawalpindi, say they have been in the business for the many years as their ancestors have ‘bequeathed the legacy’ to them.

While hollering ‘chouriyan lay lo chouriyan lay lo’, they roam the old city areas and mohallahs throughout the year to sell their jewellery. “We sell bangles throughout the year and earn Rs250 to Rs300 per day each but our sale goes up on Eid days and each one of us earns Rs900 to Rs1000 per day,” says 40-year-old Noreen.

“Eid also brings happiness in our lives as our sale goes up. Otherwise, we only earn a minute sum  in normal days,” Noreen says adding that she has nine children and she and her husband struggle to make both ends meet to feed a large family that include in-laws and other family members.

She says that her husband sells balloons outside hospitals and other public places as, according to her, parents seldom refuse to entertain the demands of their children.

Noreen, who lives in a hut near Gulistan Colony in Rawalpindi with other nomadic families, says her in-laws look after her younger children when she is working. She also says that her elder children are going to school — a rare trend among such families.

Noreen, who buys bangles from a wholesale outlet near Pirwadhai bus stand, says she gets the bangles on discounted rates and sells them at almost double price.

According to her, the business is a bit risky too. “A slight recklessness while strolling on the streets can end up damaging a whole bunch of bangles. They even they get damaged while women try them on,” she says adding that if damaged during the tryout, they put up with the loss.

“Most women and girls do not like men trying bangles on their wrists, which creates a vacuum for us. Selling them is perhaps not an art but trying them on is definitely an art in which we are masters,” she says proudly.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2016.