Buyers will soon be able to put their best foot forward scanning QR codes for real Kolhapuris

Leather Industries Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Lidcom), a state government undertaking, will launch the blockchain technology-based QR code drive soon. A single scan will give consumer information relating to the supply chain, name and location of the manufacturing unit, name of the artisan

Mumbai: Four districts of western Maharashtra -- Kolhapur, Solapur, Satara and Sangli -- famous for producing the informal-chic Kolhapuri chappals earned the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2019. But it has not managed to protect authentic traders from charlatans mass-producing fakes and selling them at a cheap price.

Kolhapur, India - July 20, 2021: Footwear shops at the Shivaji Chowk market in Kolhapur, India, on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (Anil Velhal/HT Photo) (Hindustan Times)

Now, in order to secure the real craftspeople, the state government has decided to fix a QR code on each piece of the novelty footwear, so that the consumer can sift grain from chaff.

Leather Industries Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Lidcom), a state government undertaking, will launch the blockchain technology-based QR code drive soon. A single scan will give consumer information relating to the supply chain, name and location of the manufacturing unit, name of the artisan, the source of the leather, the amount paid to the artisan, and the actual cost of raw material, as well as the information related to the GI tagging, said Dhammajyoti Gajbhiye, managing director of Lidcom.

Gajbhiye added that along with the GI tag, the QR code will help the industry curb production of duplicates. “We are working on a mechanism to weed out duplicates sold as Kolhapuri chappals. The consumers can identify authentic products,” he said.

Rough estimates by government officials and industry experts have revealed over 40% of the products in the market are fake or of inferior quality. “The chappals are available in the range of ₹200 to ₹20,000. A good start price of the real stuff is ₹680. Fakes are manufactured on machine and constructed from leather pieces, whereas authentic products are made of a single piece leather and handmade,” said N M Pawar, deputy manager, Lidcom. “We have specific types of authentic Kolhapuri chappals – the tradition has been carried forward from the Maratha king Shahu Maharaj.”

The pilot project is being launched on a budget of ₹12 lakh.

“The blockchain-enabled QR code information cannot be tampered with once uploaded. We will visit manufacturers in Kolhapur in next few days to understand their view. As the project progresses, manufacturers and artisans will be able to feed the information through an app,” said Gaurav Somvanshi, of EmerTech Innovations, the technology partner of Lidcom.

Shivajirao Powar, president of Kolhapur District Footwear Association, said, “As manufacturers are unable to meet consumers’ demands, unauthentic products manufactured in border villages of Karnataka are sold as Kolhapuri chappals. They are made of the leftover inferior leather procured from Chennai, Agra and other cities. Fixing QR codes on the real products is a good idea; it will curb the inflow duplicate stock.”