Kolhapuri chappal row: Ground beneath their feet

For Shantaram Narayan Sonavane, 50, from the Dhor group, the day begins early. By 7.30 a.m., he’s at his tannery in Dhor gali (lane) in Ichalkaranji metropolis, round 30 kilometres from Kolhapur in Maharashtra. It’s right now that he receives the animal disguise from a government-approved slaughterhouse. The buffalo disguise is steeped in a limestone slurry, known as chunadi, for 10 days.

Daily, he takes the disguise out from the tank, works on it, and places it again within the slurry. He can determine the freshest leather-based of just-culled cattle, distinguishing it from older, salt-dipped disguise that loses its energy. “The more energizing the disguise, the higher the chappal,” he says. Shantaram is a disguise provider to the Kolhapuri chappal artisans.

On the eleventh day, the loosened hair on the disguise is eliminated with a ‘ship’, an instrument formed like a ship, and put into teakwood drums. The drums comprise a liquid with hirada (myrobalan fruits) and babul tree bark. Each tanners and artisans consider these pure components have properties to each protect the leather-based and supply wearers of completed chappals well being advantages.

After three days of being transferred into completely different teakwood drums, the leather-based is introduced out, stitched right into a spherical bag and hung. It’s stuffed with the hirada-babul liquid once more for eight days. “This helps give it color, replenish the pores, and make it resistant to fungus. This must be carried out in a teakwood drum solely. There ought to be no iron, no cement anyplace near the tannery. The leather-based doesn’t take kindly to these, and instantly loses its high quality,” he says. This course of, utilizing solely vegetable dye, known as bag-tan, is unique to this area, and is essential to the making of the Kolhapuri chappal. The tip result’s at all times a camel-coloured leather-based. Anything would imply that the leather-based has been uncovered to lab-made chemical substances.

On June 23, on the Spring-Summer season 2026 Males’s Vogue Week in Milan, the 112-year-old Italian luxurious model Prada introduced what it referred to in its catalogue as “leather-based sandals”. They appeared like Kohlapuri chappals in design and materials. Social media, alive to cultural appropriation, particularly by erstwhile colonial powers, called out the exclusion of any cultural citation. Within the days after, Prada, itself a heritage label, acknowledged the traditions and practices that go into the making of the chappal, expressing its willingness to work with the artisans and craftspeople, in an e-mail to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Trade and Agriculture (MACCIA).

The Kohlapuri chappal has had a geographical indication (GI) tag since 2018, for the product made in eight districts, 4 every in Maharashtra and Karnataka. For a chappal to be known as a Kolhapuri, it should be made in these districts, be wholly nature-derived, vegetable-dyed, and hand-stitched with leather-based thread. Nylon thread or nails imply it’s not a Kohlapuri chappal.

Artisans lament that Kolhapuri chappals are shedding their market, with folks’s lack of understanding on what the unique product is. “This began taking place 60-70 years in the past, when the demand for Kolhapuri chappals went up, however the manufacturing was regular. That’s when merchants from different States began copying the design and promoting it as Kolhapuris,” says Shivajirao Powar, president of Kolhapur District Footwear Affiliation.

The decline of demand and information

Historically-made chappals require care, with oil rubbed on them to protect their sheen and delay their life. Many don’t wish to make investments that form of time anymore. As well as, designers throughout India did their very own spin on the chappal, mimicking the unique, however including color, embellishment, and typically a heel.

The leather-based processing for a Kolhapuri chappal takes 21 days. Shantaram explains that every a part of the Kolhapuri chappal is made with this leather-based, however from completely different components of the animal: the soles from the buttocks, the braids on the T-upper from the tail or legs, or from sheep pores and skin.

His household has been doing this for generations, however he laments that Dhol gali, which used to have tanneries inside every dwelling, has solely two items now. His son, an engineer, is getting ready to write down an entrance examination for a authorities job, and isn’t interested by carrying on the household enterprise.

“What’s the purpose? There isn’t a dignity of labour. It’s plenty of laborious work. You want energy to carry and grasp the heavy leather-based items, course of them. The physique smells due to the work. The cash isn’t nice. Most significantly, there’s a scarcity of the babul tree bark, which is a very powerful element in vegetable tanning,” says Akshay Shantaram Sonavane, 26, Shantaram’s son. His mom, aunt, and uncle have all been part of the household enterprise, dealing with the tools, processing the disguise. None of his technology desires to be part of it. They like desk jobs. The sub-text is that tanners are Dalits, typically appeared down upon in Hinduism’s spiritual and social heirarchy.

“It is a murals and talent,” Shantaram says, including that the Maharashtra authorities typically calls him to grasp the unique strategy of vegetable tanning. “However the unhappy half is, our position is rarely acknowledged. We don’t get land for organising our tanneries. We don’t get financial institution loans or authorities funds,” he says.

In a month, Shantaram, his spouse Rajashree, brother Tukaram and his spouse Madhavi, course of 300 kg of animal disguise. Every kilogram earns them ₹240, he says. “Alcoholism is quite common in our group. After the stench of the disguise and the laborious work of lifting these baggage, folks drink to ease the ache and the scent,” says Akshay. His household although, has been capable of save up and construct a four-storey home.

Vegetable tanning has turn into costly and rarer now, making artisans flip to tanning with lab-made chemical substances. Apart from the scarcity of over 20-year-old babul timber and expert leather-based processors, folks from the group now turning adults don’t wish to be ostracised: black nails are attribute of dyers. The residue of the crops utilized in vegetable dying was burnt together with cow dung as gas — this market has disappeared with gasoline fires taking on.

When chemical substances are used within the disguise, the properties of the chappal change instantly; they put on out sooner, say artisans. “Until 10 years in the past, there have been 50 vegetable tanning items in Kolhapur; 10 in Ichalkaranji. Now, there are not any items in Kolhapur; Ichalkaranji is left with two. Earlier, Nipani had 70 items; it now has solely 10. There isn’t a assist from the federal government,” says Tukaram.

Many artisans journey nice distances to get the disguise to make Kolhapuri chappals the unique manner. One in all them is Ashok Laxman Mane, 52, from Shirol. The artisan, who works from his village, is from the Chambhar group, a Scheduled Caste, in a system that believes he’s nearly on the lowest social stage. He has loyal prospects, who attain out to him instantly to position their orders. His YouTube movies are his advertising and marketing outreach. “I don’t provide to middlemen or to outlets,” he says. Most artisans don’t have Mane’s social-media expertise, and are compelled to make chappals as per designer specs, including a creative-industry hierarchy, another layer of discrimination {that a} Kolhapuri chappal artisan faces in life.

Gender blender

Sagar Sanjay Jadhav, 36, from Peth Wadgaon in Hatkanangle taluk in Kolhapur, has been making chappals for 5 generations. “We purchase the leather-based primarily based on weight from the Dhors. We then dip it in water and clear it with a brush. There are a number of varieties of Kolhapuri chappals: Kapshi, Kurundwadi, Mauje Kapshi, Maharaja. Now we have separate stencils prepared for every design. As soon as the leather-based is washed, we lower it as per the stencil. Then we soak it in water once more,” he says.

Thereafter, the leather-based is overwhelmed (ghatne in Marathi) and smoothened (khurapni). It’s overwhelmed once more to toughen it. The stencil is used once more and completely different components of the chappals moulded. The higher and decrease components of the only real are lower individually. After elaborate work on them, they’re caught along with the assistance of native soil close to the riverbed. These processes are carried out by males. The higher and decrease soles are then stitched by leather-based thread by the ladies. The lads craft a design with iron devices and hammer the chappal but once more. Specialised iron instruments are used for this. “Ladies do 80% of the work; males do 20%,” says Powar.

The costs of chappals are selected the idea of the design. The extra intricate the hand work, the costlier the chappal.

Bharti Sunil Gadekar, 49, from Kolhapur, has made the detha veni (braid for the chappals), stitching it to the soles for the final 20 years. This has meant a relentless ache in her neck, again, fingers, fingers, and legs, as she sits hunched over her work all day. “I hail from Mangur in Karnataka. My father used to make leather-based chappals, however I by no means made something until I received married. Right here, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law used to make chappals. I learnt from them,” she says, including that she misplaced her husband at a really younger age. “I started to do that to run the family,” she says, noting that each her sons, who’re in school 11 don’t wish to be taught the artwork. She stitches 5 or 6 pairs of chappals each day, and makes ₹25 per pair. Prada’s pair was slated to price over ₹1 lakh.

She is likely one of the few in Kolhapur’s Subhash Nagar, who works on the chappal. “If you happen to walked round some many years in the past, you’d hear the fixed sound of the iron devices as chappals being made. Now, the entire space has grown silent,” says Shubham Satpute, 28, of Inga Leather-based, a boutique that sells completely different designs, starting from ₹1,599 to ₹6,599.

Now and past

“Nowadays, the leather-based comes from Chennai, as slaughterhouses and tanneries have been shut down right here. That leather-based is chemically tanned. The individuals who used to earlier run tanneries, have now turn into distributors,” Powar says.

Artisans too use machines to chop the leather-based and glue to stay the layers of the soles, says Satpute, who runs a leather-based studio and was not too long ago part of a programme held to honour the Vishwakarma group, historically artisans of various varieties. Flaunting his {photograph} with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he says the artwork wants much more to flourish. He runs a boutique to promote “genuine Kolhapuri chappals” of various varieties, and understands that e-commerce helps take a enterprise from native to world.

After the Prada controversy, his reels on Instagram explaining the nuances of Kolhapuri chappals went viral, garnering lakhs of views and new followers for his studio’s Instagram web page. The publicity isn’t sufficient for him to maintain his enterprise, he says. “There ought to be some worldwide collaboration, so the artisans profit. At current, solely the middlemen and shopowners earn a living from margins and commissions. The artisans are nonetheless exploited and underpaid,” he says.

Lalit Gandhi, president of MACCIA, requires the Kolhapuri chappal to be patented. “A patent will assist the artisans, who’ve been probably the most exploited within the chain. There’s not even a cluster for the Kolhapuri chappals in Kolhapur at current,” he says, including that the Chamber has begun the method. He hopes the artisans will come collectively to kind a collective. With Prada displaying an curiosity in participating with the artisans, most in Kolhapur really feel this will probably be an instance for moral vogue practices. “Prada has supplied to carry a gathering with the native artisans and with our {industry} representatives. Now we have instructed a joint process pressure which may give attention to creating co-branded limited-edition collections rooted in conventional Kolhapuri designs,” he provides.

Maharashtra Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat says that he has known as for a gathering subsequent week “to take measures to handle the difficulty”.

Edited by Sunalini Mathew