Potters in India are turning away
from the craft to survive.
They churn out thousands of these lamps, called diyas,
in the months leading up to the Hindu festival of Diwali.
But it's a hard life with small profits.
And the once vibrant communities of artisans
have been drying up.
We went to Delhi to see how the traditional
diya makers are still standing.
Ashok Kumar uses a mixture
of two different types of clay and cow dung
as the base for making diyas.
He prepares it in bulk months in advance
and keeps a large pile under a tarp
in a corner of his home.
Sitting on the floor, Ashok and his nephew
work together on a potter's wheel
to quickly turn a large chunk of wet clay
into hundreds of small lamps.
Each one is quickly shaped upward by hand,
pinched in to create the bowl,
and then cut off at the base with wire.
It's a rhythm they sustain
until there's just enough clay left to shape one more.
Piece by piece, they lay the lamps out to air-dry.
Once they're completely dry,
Ashok fires the diyas in large wood-burning kilns.
Despite the kiln's large capacity,
many lamps get broken or discolored.
So after a week of the entire process,
Ashok only ends up with about 10,000.
His daughters and mother also help out
by counting and sorting the fired lamps
to get them ready to sell in bulk.
One thousand of them sell for 300 rupees.
That's only about $4,
and is not enough to sustain his family.
These low prices are a reflection of the disposable
nature of clay diyas.
Small ones this size burn for about an hour
if they aren't refilled,
and most just get thrown away after one use.
So some consumers have switched over
to reusable electric lights for their celebrations.
LEDs and battery-powered lights
have become more popular as they're easier
and cleaner to use.
On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic
closed some local markets in 2020
and kept many vendors from selling on the street.
Another problem for potters like Ashok?
Air pollution.
For the past few years, the local government in Delhi
ordered wood-burning kilns to be shut down for air quality.
To try to avoid this,
he usually fires up his kiln overnight.
And even with these risks,
other potters in the same area
have boosted their businesses
by making different products that aren't just diyas.
Like flowerpots.
Despite the hard work, Vinod Prasad takes pride
in his family's history.
As for Ashok and his own legacy,
he actually hopes for a brighter future
for younger generations.