Counterfeiters defame Kashmir Pashmina COLUMN ONE Japanese Lady Gets Shawl Tested, Finds It Fake Mukeet AKMALI Srinagar, June 13: With government and other stakeholders failing to check the menace of fake handicrafts, Kashmir’s famed Pashmina industry is getting defamed in foreign countries. In a glaring example, a Japanese woman after wearing a Kashmir Pashmina shawl developed skin allergy. On getting the shawl tested in quality control laboratory in Japan, she found it to be fake. “According to the company to which I export Pashmina items, the lady in Japan was allergic to Angora. She then got the shawl tested and it was found that there was only 19 percent Pashmina in the shawl. It is such a disgrace for me that I am not able to cope up with the situation. Although I have been exporting Pashmina shawls, but I am not the manufacturer and don’t know whether the artisans had used Pashmina or some other fiber,” said the dealer who had exported the shawl. “The foreign company whose client the Japanese lady is, has also sent the lab report according to which there was only small amount of Pashmina in the shawl and rest of it was wool and silk,” he said. He added: “I have been exporting Pashmina items to this foreign company for more than 20 years but this incident has made me a cheater before them. The company leveled charges against me accusing me of cheating them and selling fake Pashmina in the name of Kashmiri Pashmina which is not true.” He said that government should put in a mechanism and set up quality control analysis labs so that exporters like him don’t have to face such awkward situation. “It is very sad to see that some unscrupulous elements are selling fake Pashmina items in the name of Kashmir art, it has given us bad name not only in Kashmir but across the globe, I have lost my credibility and incurred huge losses due to this episode,” the dealer said. The exporter also got the Pashmina shawl tested and the report was negative.” After quality analysis, it has been observed that out of 450 fibers, 326 fibers are of wool and only 124 fibers of Pashmina,” reads the quality analysis report of the Pashmina shawl. Experts said that State government has failed to stop the menace, as a result of which fake Pashmina industry in Kashmir has reached to glaring heights and if not stopped forthwith the State may lose its heritage of Pashmina. “If the malpractice is not stopped, the Kashmir Pashmina industry will be completely destroyed which will affect thousands of women dependent on spinning Pashmina for their livelihood,” said Muhammad Ayoub, a Pashmina dealer. A senior official in Handicrafts Department told Greater Kashmir that there is no high quality testing mechanism available in the State which can differentiate between genuine and fake Pashmina. “The State government is working to introduce nanotechnology to protect counterfeiting of Kashmir Pashmina. Handicrafts Department has come up with a novel concept of fixing nanotechnology chips on pure Kashmiri Pashmina to make it distinct from its duplicate,” the official said. Pertinently, Jammu and Kashmir has exported handicraft goods worth Rs 1643 crore during 2011-12. The Economic Survey 2012-13, that was tabled in the State Assembly, reveals that export figure of handicraft goods recorded a quantum jump from Rs 1004.1 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 1643.37 crore in 2011-12.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 04:14:53 +0000
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