Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh), Aug. 10: A destitute weaver of the fabled Benarasi silk sari has sold his four-month-old son for Rs 500 to keep the kitchen fire going for about a week.

On Friday evening, the hands that once worked magic on the looms in Nurpur Bullat village held out the infant, sick and hungry for two days, and received in return a few currency notes.

As 45-year-old Bansaraj Ram looked longingly at his son, Deepchand Jaiswal, from a neighbouring village, drew up a deed of sale.

Azamgarh district magistrate Rajaram Upadhyay said he has heard of the incident.

“As far as I know, it is a mutual adoption and not sale,” Upadhyay said. When reminded that adoption takes place in court, he said he would order a probe.

That evening, Bansaraj returned home with a heavy heart but a mind light with relief.

The Dalit weaver has four more sons, aged between four and 10, by his first wife Badami Devi.

About a year ago, Bansaraj married a second time, a common practice among the Dalits in the belt. Lalti Devi gave birth to the boy in April.

“Since this child was born, our suffering increased. He was not well and we were spending more on his treatment than we could spend on our living,” said the father.

Anand Mohan, assistant director of the Uttar Pradesh Handloom Corporation, said the government has ordered a probe.

“The industry is passing through a recession trend. But the state government is committed to provide the weavers economic support,” he said.

Bansaraj’s family is among the 3,000 weaver families in Mubarakpur block, 15 km from the district headquarters here. But the looms have fallen silent over the last five years, mainly due to the invasion of cheap Chinese silk.

“We were forced to give up our loom and pull rickshaws. This too did not help us earn enough,” said Bansaraj.

Bansaraj’s father, Mahesh, said his hard-pressed son even thought of dumping the boy in a local hospital. “But God willed a better deal for the son,” he said.

Durgachand Jaiswal, a shop owner in Amila village, was on the lookout for a boy his son could adopt. Deepchand has three daughters.

As a happy Deepchand walked away with the boy, the focus was back on the grim battle the weavers of Azamgarh, Mirzapur and Varanasi districts are waging against Chinese silk and a slump in the export market.

In 2003, three weavers in Varanasi district committed suicide as they were unable to repay the loans they had taken to resuscitate their trade.

The authorities admit that the Rs 1,000-crore Benarasi sari industry is in turmoil.

Of the six lakh weavers in the state, over half have been forced to take up menial jobs, like pulling rickshaws in the cities of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

“Over the last few years, the export of Varanasi silk has dwindled due to a lot of factors. Slump in the international market hit the industry. Besides, the China silk traders have moved in cheap yarn to hit the local market and decided to replicate Varanasi silk by hiring some weavers from Varanasi,” said a senior officer of the handloom corporation.

The story is similar in other silk-producing cities like Bhagalpur, where the destitute Muslim weavers are dying of tuberculosis.

The Uttar Pradesh government recently levied a 12.5 per cent tax on powerlooms to help the handloom weavers, but this has been of little help. The powerlooms, already reeling under irregular electricity supply, have been hit hard.