Darbhanga: Members of the Laheri community, who make Darbhanga's famous lac bangles, say the trade is fast losing its gleam.

Meera Devi has been crafting lac bangles at a tiny workshop in Pandasarai area of the old city for years. She works for 8-9 hours every day, but earns just Rs 35-Rs 70 - although the bangles she makes sell at a premium.

The plight of hundreds of lac bangle makers working in small workshops across Pandasarai is similar.

"The lac is extracted from trees and costs Rs 1,500 a kg," said Meera Devi. "Approximately 40 pairs of bangles can be made from 1 kg of lac. The raw materials are largely supplied from Rajasthan and Jharkhand. We buy it in either from Darbhanga or Muzaffarpur. The colours come from semi-precious stone dust, which too is costly. We work as a team, three to five people at a time. We sit facing each other and each one is assigned a specific task. By the end of the day, we make around 200 pairs of bangles."

"The government is least concerned about our condition," said Soni Devi, another lac bangle maker. "Before 2004, the government offered loans for handicraft. We took loans and stocked raw materials but grim floods that year."

Since the, the bangle makers say, the government has taken no interest in helping them.

"We bought raw material with the loan but it got submerged in the floods. We repaid the loan and interest to the government, but it has not paid any heed to our situation," said Soni Devi. "A few of us were given handicraft certificates, but it hardly helps."

An example of the community's past glory: Darbhanga's urban centre of Laheriyasarai is named for the community.