The main occupation of the people of Hettiyawala, Kirinda, a village in this hilly terrain of the South was weaving hats and other handicrafts from reeds. The local Indi reeds are brought to this hamlet from Ranna and Netolpitiya and the women folk of the village take pains in turning out attractive and strong hats with reeds but do not get a fair price for their products.

While the eco-friendly cottage crafts and handicraftsmen are facing an uphill task, some of them made their observations on the future of their handicraft.

W. A. Chandra, one of the women experienced in the craft, said these products were turned out with lot of hard work going into them but when they were taken to the market a reed hat fetched only 22 rupees which was only pittance today. "Even if we try to convince traders about the cost of our product and the labour that goes into it, they are not prepared to give us a reasonable price>"

She said it took at least two hours to complete a hat but the other work, like preparing the reeds and gathering them, were also time consuming.

H. M. Champika, another woman engaged in the craft, said reed hat making was a time consuming exercise but the government intervened and helped to bring in better technical methods of production and find better markets for the villagers who try to make a living by this craft. But traders were exploiting the villagers and did not give a fair price for their products.

She said the traders profit by the labour of the crafts persons but the Department of Small Industries had failed to take note of the handicraftsmen and women so that they continued to sell their labour for the profit of middlemen and traders.

H. K. Malani said they first brought the Indi reed from another village, split them into the required sizes and weave strips like belts to make the hats. About eight hats could be woven with one kilogram of reed but it was labour intensive and time consuming.

A. P. Jayawardana, a trader who purchases reed hats from the village, said he was continuing the trade started by his father several years back. Reed hats were used mainly by fisher folk, who did fishing at sea. The hats were in demand in places like Kalmunai, Akkaraipattu and were also bought by rice farmers during the main crop seasons. "Outside traders buy these from us but we cannot get a better price from them. If however these reed hats could be made with improved design and colours a better price could be expected from the product. However there were constraints like shortage of raw material and the absence of modern methods of production. If these problems could be overcome a better product and a better market could be found," Jayawardana said.