Business at Benshull Haat. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

If you haven’t yet bought that matching pair of jootis to go with your ethnic suit, you can try Benshull Haat for a change and some really cheap buys. Popularly known as ‘juto bazaar’, at Padmapukur on CIT Road, it is a rare flourishing haat in the south of the city.

Over a century old, it once used to be known as chamra haat (leather bazaar). After the shifting of the tanneries from east Calcutta to Bantala, the traders here quickly switched from leather to finished products like shoes, chappals, bags, belts and raw materials.

Benshull Haat is not just the largest wholesale market for shoes catering to retailers and individual buyers but also a shoe-maker’s delight for accessories and materials like leather, soles, adhesives, rexine, rubber, nails and cobbler tools. It is to footwear what Metiabruz is to dress materials.

The number of traders in the haat varies from 1,000 to 1,200. They are primarily cobblers with their own manufacturing units at Tantibagan, Topsia, Rajabazar and College Street. The famed Chinese shoe-makers, however, are conspicuous by their absence.

Like a typical haat, transaction starts early in the morning at 5am and continues till noon. Before the pujas and Id, business hours extend till eight in the evening.

“Initially, we were rather worried when the malls and big brand players invaded the market. We feared we’d lose our business. But we were wrong. Our market is growing. Even regular mall buyers visit our market and their number is on the rise. However, the majority of our customers cannot afford to buy from the malls and a good number of them are nervous to enter those swanky shops,” said Shamim Ismail, the secretary of Leather Hawkers’ Union in Vidyasagar Market Complex Association.

A display at one of the stalls. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Explaining the success of Benshull Haat even in the midst of a retail boom, Rameshwar Bhattacharaya, a Bata store manager, said: “The buying trend has changed completely over the years. Earlier, people wanted long-lasting shoes but now youngsters are looking for style and design more than durability.”

“Pointed low-heel sandals and jootis are ruling this year’s Puja fashion. Among the girls, a special favourite is straps embellished with pebbles of coloured glass,” said a salesman of a Khadim’s showroom at the haat.

“We are tired of wearing a single pair of branded chappals round the year. I prefer to have three to four pairs that I can mix and match with my clothes. So I come to Benshull Haat. It is also pocket-friendly,” said second-year student Amina Khatoon.

Benshull Haat also supplies to stores in the city and districts. The haat mainly caters to the middle and lower middle classes, who cannot afford a Bata, Reebok or Nike. Here a pair of sandals can be picked up for anything between Rs 40 and Rs 400, whereas a pair of shoes will cost between Rs 170 and Rs 1,200.

Shoes are sold here both in bulk and retail. “Before the pujas, the haat records daily sales of over Rs 20 lakh,” said Ismail. “Each day during the festive season we manage to sell about 25,000 pairs of shoes and sandals,” said women’s sandal manufacturer Humayun Ali.

Owners of small shoe-making units brush shoulders with individual cobblers in this haat, hawking their wares.

Shoes and chappals are sold at almost throwaway prices, making it a happy hunting ground for traders from the suburbs and far-flung districts.