Yet to recover from the setbacks Agra's footwear industry suffered due to demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), the industry has now been hit hard by floods.
"People from every stratum of society are involved in the manufacturing of footwear and serve 65 per cent of people in India. The state is already recovering from demonetization and GST. Now floods have added to our problems. So all together 60 per cent of the business is over," president of Agra Shoe Factors Federation Gagan Das Ram told .
A worker at a footwear factory said: "For 20 years, I have been working in this sector. Usually, the business is good but from the last two months the pace of work has drastically come down. There is no work here. We are barely earning anything."
Sharing the reasons for the slowdown in the shoe industry, shoe manufacturer Pradeep Kumar said: "The main cause is the flood that most part of the country is facing. Due to sluggish sales, we are also short of funds."
"We are just managing at 25 per cent of the total products sale. Our 70 per cent labourers have left the job because there is no work for them," said Sharik Aneesh, another shoe manufacturer.
( With inputs from ANI )