New Delhi: The Chinese dragon is spitting fire on the Indian sari market. Thousands of metres of duplicate sari fabric, made in China, is being dumped in various parts of the country, especially Uttar Pradesh, killing the domestic industry.

Chinese silk imitations are being sold in Benaras for Rs 9 per metre as against the Indian fabric which comes for anywhere between Rs 30 - 150 per metre. Chinese cotton and machine made printed sarees too are being dumped in retail markets here, says Rita Kapur Chisti, a textile historian, who conducted a survey of 12 districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.

As a result of this, a number of factories producing the fabric for the Benarsi sarees have shut down. Our weavers are languishing in various other states also, she says.

A Chinese-Benarsi sari comes for around Rs 100 compared to the original ones which start from Rs 1000 onwards, says Chisti, who has written two volumes on Sari, as worn by people from different regions of the country.

"Two years ago, the Chinese took some 45 weavers of Kanchipuram Sarees from Tamil Nadu. Today, Made in China Kanchipuram Sarees are being sold in world markets, while weavers in India are suffering from starvation deaths," ay Laila Tyabji, founder of Dastkar Movement.