Potters making earthen lamps in Odisha's Khurdha district are hopeful that whatever they have made will be sold out during the festive season and they will earn living as their business has been affected by the ongoing pandemic.
After months of lockdown owing to COVID-19, potters are struggling to revive their business. This year, they have got no orders for the earthen items and they are making them in small quantity so that they can earn some money.
Speaking to , Tilotama Muduli, a potter said, "Every year we used to make these items in large quantity, but this year, we are not making that much as we don't have business due to COVID-19 pandemic, we are making just for household use if people buy them for Diwali will get some business."
Srikant Muduli, another potter said they hope whatever they have made will be sold out.
"We have suffered huge loss due to COVID pandemic this year, every year we used to get advance orders from temples and people for Diwali, but this year we have no orders, we hope that whatever we have made will sell out," Srikant told .
This year, Diwali will be celebrated on November 14.
The COVID-19 protocols have restricted the scope of celebrating Diwali like previous years in order to curb down public gathering and maintain social distancing to keep new cases of infections at bay.
In the first lockdown, India was under a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country from March 25 to April 14 and later extended till May 3 and then further extended till several months.
According to the Union Health Ministry, there are 13,047 active cases in the state with 2,75,749 recovered and 1320 deaths so far.
( With inputs from ANI )
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