They are the newest casualty of Chinese imports

At least 20,000 people in Hyderabad, mostly women, depend on pin-making for a livelihood. But their existence is being threatened due to the large quantities of safety pins being dumped at Begum Bazar, the hub of wholesale activity. With smaller dealers preferring the Chinese pins, the local pin-makers have been forced to down their shutters.

Javed, whose family has been in the pin-making business for four decades, says the demand for safety pins from local dealers slackened almost three years ago. The units here continued with their production and thereby provided large-scale employment.

However, the falling demand for local pins has started hurting badly this year. "We have closed down four units this year," he says.

Javed and his family have about 10 units that make safety pins. They provide employment to 2,500 women. "We tried to continue our business. But it is now getting difficult to pay wages to labour," he says.

These units are located in areas like Katedan, Talabkatta, Kishenbagh and other parts of the old city. Typically, women with no formal education work here. The women make up to Rs 60 a day by making the pins. The day's earnings are pooled and paid on a weekly basis every Tuesday.

"Most women support their families with the money earned here. There are many cases where the women saved the money to meet the education needs of their children or for their marriage," says Masood, a community worker.

Most units get the raw material - steel wire and sheets - from the nearby BHEL area. Three tonnes of raw material lasts for 10 days. They are then made into four sizes. Each kilogram of wire is enough to make more than 400-500 pins, depending on the size.

Javed recollects that during times of peak demand, his firms handled 8-10 tonnes a day. Pins from Hyderabad earlier used to find their way to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and other upcountry markets.

Several pin-making units in the city are now planning to come together to set up an umbrella organisation to voice their concerns of livelihoods being lost due to Chinese imports.