Leather Businesses in Bengaluru-A Post pandemic Study

Abstract

Leather goods such as footwear, bags belts and other accessories are in big demand among today’s population the craze for fashionable leather goods and accessories has only increased day by day.In Bangalore every shopping area has its stock of leather goods from handmade footwear to bags, jerkins, waistcoat belts and purses.This is one of the main businesses which involves mostly unskilled and semi skilled leather artisans.This leather craft making is mostly unorganized.The are many outlets in (retail) in Bangalore and to understand if this craft actually provided employment and income generation for the rural artisans were the often asked question. The study area chosen was Majestic and Avenue Streetin Bangalore. The sample size was 200 and 24 leather retail outlets were selected for simple random sampling.The research gap intends to explore whether these leather ancillary or primary manufacturing and retail outlets are actually employing jobless youth from the deprived classes and if so are they employed in the manufacturing primary units orlooking after sales in the retail leather units?What is the scope for the growth projection of the leather businesses in Karnataka given the major scarcities of labor and raw hides?The research methodology used was both primary and secondary data. The data collected data was analyzed using percentage method. The findings have indicated that all theretail outlets have employed majority youth from socially depressed classes with rural background with some of the collected samples being handicapped. Their earnings were100 Rs to Rs.200 rupees per day. In this leather business it has been noticed that the demand for raw hides has outstripped the supply though there is a huge demand for leather made handbag shoes footwear most of the time it is being seen due to the fast fluctuating markets and loss of buildings used for tanning and dyeing leather this industry has slowly started diminishing.never returnedThe leather industry has incurred huge losses especially in Bangalore as tough laws and the repeated incurrence of losses contributed in driving theworkers out of work and post pandemic since June 2022 they were there seen to be struggling with loss of work and loss of sustenance as Bangalore tanneries employed a huge migrant workforce who travelled back to their native statesduring the pandemic. The main law which gave a deathblow to leather businesses and tannery and tanning industries was the Karnataka Anti cow-Slaughter Legislation June2020.