The rising clamour to boycott Chinese goods in the wake of the Galwan Valley clash that left 20 Indian soldiers dead last week has pushed hundreds of workmen and illumination artists in Hooghly’s Chandernagore to the edge of uncertainty.
People in the town’s globally famed illuminations trade say they will be in peril if raw material imports such as LEDs, power-supplying units and integrated circuits (ICs) stop from China.
At least 25,000 people are estimated to work in Chandernagore’s illuminations industry. Around 4 lakh people in the state are dependent on the illuminations business that uses Chinese raw material to a large extent.
Artists and workmen have asked the government to arrange for indigenous, low-cost products if a formal boycott of Chinese products was inevitable.
