The main centre for the Punjabi jutti is Sri Muktsar Sahib district, with Patiala and Fazilka. Khunan Khurd is named in reporting as a village hollowing out as the trade goes.
A jutti takes more than 200 stitches in coarse cotton thread. Learning the work takes six months to a year.
Jaswant Ram makes about four pairs a day at ₹80 a pair and has been in the trade around twenty years. Sant Ram has decided not to teach his son. Munshi Ram, in his seventies, guarantees two years' wear. Kala Singh left the trade to paint houses in Gidderbaha.
A pair that earns its maker ₹80 retails at around ₹450.
The Punjabi jutti has no GI tag. A Textiles Ministry official has listed it, and the Patiala salwar, among products that could be filed for. Phulkari is GI-registered, covering Punjab plus Ambala and Hisar in Haryana.
The stitching is done with a single needle through leather that has been soaked and shaped, and the embroidery on the upper is worked separately and then joined.
The trade has no organised buyers' side. A maker sells to a trader at the trader's price and has no way to reach the market that pays the retail figure.
A geographical indication would not by itself raise the maker's rate. It would establish who is entitled to use the name, which is where the value of the term currently leaks.