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Meerut's pride

Having received the GI tag in 2013, the handmade scissors industry offers livelihood opportunities to tens of thousands of workers but modernisation of the craft is the need of the hour

Meeruts pride
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With nearly 400 units in the medium, small and micro enterprise (MSME) sector, the 350-year-old scissor industry of Meerut is a source of direct and indirect livelihood to nearly 70,000 people. The Meerut handmade scissor received the GI tag in 2013 with technical and legal support from the Intellectual Property Facilitation Centre (IPFC) of the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME). This was the first time a handmade tool from micro and small and medium enterprises in India received the GI status. It is believed that this will help the industry carve out a niche for itself, and also rise to the challenge posed by much cheaper, though inferior, variants from China.

A unique feature of the Meerut scissor is that it is made entirely of recycled, or 'upcycled' material. The main ingredient for the carbon steel blades is sourced from metal scrap of junk buses, cars, trucks and railways. The process is entirely manual, with some help from basic cutting, grinding, drilling and polishing machines. Although there are over 14 stages in the cycle, it is done by the extended network of households that have been sharing familial ties for generations. The manufacturing process involves the entire household — while men make the scissors, women add their share of efforts by performing tasks that require handwork, including fine carving and packaging.

Meerut produces a vast variety of scissors — tailor scissors, barber scissors, paper, hardening and wire-cutting scissors, among others. Each type has specific blades, weight and length, and is either tapered or blunt-tipped, depending on its use. The size varies from six inches to 14 inches, and a pair of Meerut scissors are sold at anything between Rs 80 to Rs 2,500, depending on the size.

The antiquity of the product can be traced to an extant catalogue of 1896, issued by the General Scissors Factory, Meerut. This was sent not just to London, New York and Paris but also to Cairo and Aden. There are appreciation letters from across the world in the workshops (Karkhanas) that are now beginning to look like entrepreneurship centres. The Meerut scissor is like a family heirloom — Dada le, potaa barte (bought by the grandfather and still used by the grandson). Many scissors also have elegant calligraphic details etched on them.

Thanks to the Atma Nirbharta mission of the Government of India as well as an increasing resentment against the Chinese products in the Indian market, the product has received a fillip. To quote a local entrepreneur, "Chinese scissors are only better in look, they do not cut with the same finesse and are not as durable as ours." Interestingly, while the Covid lockdowns may have been bad for other sectors, for the scissor industry, there was a spike in demand for hair cutting scissors as many families avoided going to the barber for fear of catching an infection.

The history of the Meerut scissor

It is believed that the first pair was made 360 years ago by Asli Akhun. His seventh-generation descendant, Anis Ahmed, carries forward this tradition. His late father, Rais Ahmed, was a local celebrity, whose hand-made scissors were much in demand not just in India but also in West Asia. "The GI tag will make a difference to us. No one else will be able to copy our scissors or misuse the made-in-Meerut tag our handmade scissors offer…" Ahmed said, adding that the Meerut scissors were used by India's leading bespoke tailor, Bobby Grover of Khan market, New Delhi, who has tailored suits for visiting US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

However, along with the sense of pride, there is an element of fear and apprehension about the future, as many industry insiders also believe that the sector will have to modernise to survive. Thus, Abdullah Saeed of M Saeed Scissors Works feels that there is a need for Meerut to modernise its manufacturing processes. "After initial gains during the pandemic and anti-Chinese sentiments, Chinese scissors are again making a comeback slowly. So, ultimately, we would have to learn to compete with Chinese products and that would not be possible unless we adopt technology and move from manual to machine manufacturing".

In the context of the UP government's scheme of One District One Product, Meerut district has stepped up the promotion of the scissor cluster. The government has established a common facility centre (CFC) with the latest machines to help local scissors manufacturers adopt the technology. Not only will the centre help in standardising design, it will also help in common procurement of raw material, packaging and participation in national and international exhibitions.

So, go ahead, and get yourself a Meerut scissor for yourself…your great grandchildren will remember you for this investment!

Views expressed are personal

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