The nationwide lockdown which overlapped with Rongali Bihu in Assam has affected small scale entrepreneurs, particularly the pitha and ladoo-making enterprises which were dependent on the festive season to earn a few bucks.

Usually, this unorganised industry sells pitha and ladoo of various makes and shapes out of coconut, sesame seed and rice flour and jaggery.

This Rongali Bihu, however, cast a cloud as such entrepreneurs stand to incur massive losses in the midst of the lockdown that has driven 1.3 billion Indians indoors.

Guwahati-based Bhogali Food Products Pvt Ltd, one of iconic companies of Assam producing traditional Assamese delicacies under the brand name Bhogali Jalpan, is also facing the heat of the lockdown.

Ajit Sharma Baruah, the founder of the enterprise, said this year, his enterprise will face losses to the tune to more than Rs 40 lakh due to the lockdown being extended to the Bihu season.

“From April 22, we are closed for business. The production of pithas has stopped as the 2,000-plus retail outlets of the enterprise are not registering good sales. During this season we sell around Rs 50 lakh worth of pithas. However, this time the sale and distribution have been affected,” he said.

“We only have a little stock which will fetch us Rs 4 lakh though our retail outlets spread across Guwahati, Mangaldoi, Nalbari, Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar, which will give us some reprieve,” he added.

Niva Saikia from Sivasagar, who usually sells neatly packed pitha during Bhogali Bihu and Rongali Bihu melas, said, “Pitha, despite its very fragile quality, is surprisingly durable. If stored properly, they can be served from a month of their preparation.”

Saikia said it is a double whammy for the industry which also suffered in the wake of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The unorganised sector is believed to comprise nearly 25,000 workers and traders who are either directly or indirectly involved in the trade.

“The trend of people buying readymade pitha, ladoo and sandoh is rising as they don’t have time or the skill to make the traditional food items relished during the harvest festival,” said Narji Khandakar, a homemaker of Baihata Charali in Kamrup district.

Assam health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also visited the doctors and nurses at Hotel Taj Vivanta in Guwahati on Tuesday who are under mandatory quarantine at the hotel after treating Covid-19 patients.

Sarma met the 43 doctors and nurses and expressed his gratitude to them for their dedicated service. He also offered them Bihu delicacies.