Visitors start trickling in to Dilli Haat, govt to offer artisans a rental cut

Days after it reopened to public, the Dilli Haat near INA Market in south Delhi, a much visited hub of crafts, art, culture and food, is gradually reclaiming its artisans and visitors. The ticket counters are still closed, as entry is free until August 15.

Until 3pm Friday, at least 30 visitors had come in, said the security team manning the entry. Many craft shops are yet to open shop, as artisans from far-off states have not been able to return to the capital owing to restrictions on travel on account of Covid-19.

According to officials managing the haat, on the occasion of Hariyali Teej (July 23), 163 visitors had come -- the highest footfall since it reopened on July 4 after remaining shut for nearly three months since the nationwide lockdown began on March 25.

Many said they dropped in just to get a breath of fresh air. However, many visitors said they had expected food stalls to open, but only one or two were doing business. Except for two government-run food stalls --the Tamil Nadu cafe and Mother Dairy outlet -- all others are expected to open by August 1, said officials.

Yashika Joshi, who had come with her family from Gurugram, said, “It was getting too suffocating being at home and working from home for almost four months. Besides, malls do not allow children entry, so we came here to just hang around for a while.”

Although sales are yet to pick up, artisans said at least there is something to look forward to, which is better than sitting at home.

“I set up my stall on Thursday. The sales are about 20%. In two days, I’ve made around ₹5,000-7,000, while earlier, before the lockdown, I used earn around ₹35,000-40,000 a day,” said Eijaz Hussain, an artisan from Lucknow, who sells traditional women clothing.

The craft shop owners, housed in permanent shops, too said visitors are not buying the finer stuff as much as they did earlier. “I opened the shop on July 20. Since then, I have sold just two or three items. People are not purchasing as they used to. We are hoping that the footfall increases over the weekend, as the weather too is now pleasant,” Ritu Parvez, who runs a Banarasi handloom shop, said.

A food stall owner, who did not wish to be named, said their major concern was not having enough staff or as much business to pay the rent. “We had requested the Delhi tourism department to consider reducing rent by 50%, as there is not much business. Every food stall used to have at least 10-15 workers, most of whom had gone back to their home states,” he said.

Officials from the tourist department said of the 166 craft shops, 28 are open at present while six or seven of the 46 commercial stall artisans are also back.

Sanjay Goel, managing director, Delhi Tourism department, said \the footfall is slowly picking up and they also plan to cut the rents in all categories by almost one-third. “A decision has been taken in this regard. We will make the rents for all types of stalls almost one third of the existing rates until August 31. After that, we will review the situation. With reduced rentals, we expect more stall owners to return and business to pick up.”

He added that additional staff has been deployed to maintain social distancing while thermal screening is mandatory before entry into the haat.