Law Garden Market

Multiple parameters that make the Law Garden market a “COMMUNITY”
Law Garden is a Community as they share,
§ Each craftsmen share their business trend that has evolved over last 50 years; history and existence of the market.
§ Shops with no forename or no shop numbers.
§ Tradition they follow and culture that they belong to, i.e. dominant by Kathiawar, Gujarati’s.
§ The legal aspects like the current case going on against them for setting up a business in an illegal space, the collection of money from cops.
§ Common problems they face are like no bathrooms, no electricity, no roofs provided so extra expenditure that incurs during rainy season to cover their shops, packing and unpacking approximately 45 to 50 dresses per shop everyday and transportation cost of the same.

Common resources
§ Infrastructure and Space
- The raised structure provided by the building construction company-Aashima.
- The locality of the market which is popular for handicraft products and dresses. First time visitors of Ahmedabad make it a point to go this market.
§ Market
- Customers- NRI’s, Travelers from different part of the country, Local people, Tourists, etc.
- Suppliers – Suppliers of raw materials from Gheekata market, Kalupur wholesale market, Kutch craftsmen, Rajkot craftsmen, loan, electric battery and bulb supplier, tea/snacks etc.
- Price that they pay as well as that they get.
§ Tempo wala’s, auto rickshaws for transportation of their products.

Communication pattern
§ Attracting the customer by
- Showcasing display of the items, i.e. dresses, jewelry, bags, handicraft products, etc.
- Calling them and catching customer’s attention
- Bargaining- “Bonny system”
§ Communication with the suppliers-
- In the form of building business relationships
- Trust based credit system when short of cash.

Common income source
§ By selling their designed traditional outfits during Navratri festival to the local people, travelers, as well as tourists.
§ By diversification of product range like bags, traditional bedsheets, pillow covers, wall hangings, curtain hangings, traditional Kurta’s, readymade kurta’s, etc.
§ Involving their children in other businesses like sabji wala, guard, tailor, etc.
§ Investing in exhibitions in several areas.

Common pattern
§ Trade cycle
- Similar trade timings ( 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm)
- Mornings dedicated to take care about the management, operations, manufacturing, production and logistics.

An overview of their livelihood, education and environment
The groups of Gujarati Kathiawari craftsmen residing in basically three localities called Nawa Vadaj, Memnagar village and Jivraj park in Ahmedabad are the people who have occupied their respective spaces in the Law garden market. All these families are involved in this business since last 50 years approximately. Their family consists of three generations from grand parents, their son, his wife and 5 to 6 grand children. They educate their children in the government school till 5th class to both boy and girl child. After that, girls gets involved in the household work and helps in the kutchi embroidery, patch cutting work, stitching, etc, and boys starts climbing the steps of getting into their family owned businesses. Their main festival is Navratri itself which is their main season of income. Their worship devi dashama and Amba. Their live in groups in the above mentioned three localities where some have managed to invest in their own houses while some are paying the monthly rent and fighting for daily surviving. They try to build the relation with their supplier (Jayesh Sharma-battery and bulb provider) as they are aware of 40/- Rs per day liability to him. Some have achieved trust from the private money lender (loan provider) as they believe in having a variety in products interests the customer and they require money to purchase and produce more handicraft products which they are capable of selling while some people are just trying their hands for loan at different possible places. They have an active leader of the market, who has seen the market evolve and a socialite by nature, to which they call “a member” for putting up their issues ahead. He also collects the amount for cops from each craftsman.

Primary resources and processing
They work in the day time to design and manufacture the traditional outfits, packs all the dresses ready for sale in big canvas bags and transport it by autowala’s or tempo wala’s to the Law Garden market by late afternoon from their respective residences. Some of them plan a month’s trip to Bhuj Kutch to procure the traditional patches of kutchi embroidery from their fixed suppliers in that region while some go to Rajkot. They use these patches to make chainiya choli’s(women’s traditional outfit) and Kediyu’s (men’s traditional outfit), bedspreads, bags, kurti’s, etc,. Some families have hired tailors to speed up their work. They have made furma’s for each different outfit of 4 different sizes (XS, S, M & L) for ease of work. They buy the base cotton fabric (grey), threads and decorative items from Kalupur and Gheekatha wholesell market. They dye the base cotton material to add on to the color palette of their collection and design outfits considering the requirements and trends of their customers. Their maximum sale happens during navratri where one chaniya choli is sold form 400/- to 1500/- Rs, depending on the embroidery and materials used. Lakuben and bhalabhai deals majorly in chaniya choli’s and kediyu’s, they make 10 to 12 piece per day and as and when it gets sold they make more. They have started making bags, pillow covers, patch work bed sheets from the residue material that is produced. Their average earnings per day is approximately 250/- to 400/- Rs.
For traditional Kurta’s they get the base material from the Kalupur market at the cost of 35/- to 50/- Rs. per meter, some does embroidery themselves for which they get the thread, embroidery rings, needle, etc, from kalupur market which costs nill as compared to their other raw materials, they charge ranging from 25/- to 40/- Rs. for the embroidery depending on the design, colors used and time taken to make it and some outsource it as well. Stitching the garment costs them ranging from 20/- to 25/- Rs. Overall, as per Sureshbhai’s and his wife Aartiben (one of the craftsmen) their expenditure is 75/- to 100/- which they sell it in 100/- to 150/- or sometimes in rare cases 200/-. Their earnings per day in a usual sunny day is 500/- Rs. or sometimes just half of it or even nothing from which they have pay commuting charge: 90/- Rs + battery and bulb: 40/- + initial cost of raw materials. They say that a very nominal amount is left for them to shop for attractive materials which limits and as a result they cannot have variety. If given a handsome amount as loan to them to procure more materials they have the confidence of manufacturing, selling and making a profit.

The more I am penetrating in the market, more insights I am getting. My next task in my list is to visit manjuben's house(one of the craftsmen) as she has invited me. And, Of course i plan to take a picture of her daughter writing which she loved and a picture of her shop for them.

Tête-à-tête with primary school teachers

Continuing with the previous discussion about school teachers, I went again and again to the school, had a word with the teachers and even got a chance for going to one of the teachers house, who lived the nearest to the school.
Another set of interaction with the school teachers revealed several interesting things about the culture of school teachers and the real motivation factors behind them, choosing this profession over other professions.
General information
The primary school teachers are under deputation from the government of Gujarat and are under the zila panchayat of the zila that they belong, or start their teaching. Since, Kudasan is under gandhinagar zila, the teachers are a subject of this zila. The first posting is given by the government, and after 1.5-2 years they get an option of either staying in the same school or going to any other school in the same zila. As of now, only two teachers belong to Kudasan village, while the rest of the teachers belong to various other part of gandhinagar, including the main city. The promotions are done on the basis of seniority, and very senior teachers can become principals as well.
Everyday life
Everyday life of a school teacher is no different from a normal working professional. Their day begins in the morning with all the mundane household work like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the members of the family. The school timings are from 10:00 am in the morning to 5:00pm in the evenings on all working days. The school teachers after finishing their household work, reach the school anywhere between 9:45 to 10:15 am, and then throughout the day, they are in the school. They go home by around 5:00 in the evening and then get back to their children and household work again. They take pride in saying that they manage to do all their household work by themselves and do not get tired in doing it. They do it willingly, and attribute this attitude of theirs to the fact that ever since they were young girls, they indulged in household work at home, so it has become a part of their daily routine. Some of them even enroll themselves in the art of living course, to cope up better with everyday stress.
Work
The school teachers enjoy their work, and they feel that their will to teach and the students are the biggest motivation factor for them to join the school as primary school teachers. Teaching at the government schools can be a tricky task for the teachers as, the main motive of the schools is to get more and more students from impoverished backgrounds to come and study in the school. As a result, the students have to handled with a lot of tact and patience, and can almost never be scolded. Infact, as a part of their duty, if a certain child in their respective class, has not come to school, then they personally have to go to the child’s house, and coax the parents to send them to school.
As Geeta ben points out: ‘ the children who come to this school as so backward, that they have to be taught basic things like personal hygiene, and sometimes they come in such a dirty condition to the school, they have to be given a bath in as well.’
Since the teachers usually do not get transferred to other government schools, and stay in the same school over a number of years, they are generally very well respected and trusted by the parents of the students.
Economic condition
As opposed to the pre-conceived idea about the primary school teachers, they actually come from relatively well to do backgrounds, and teach in the school, not for earning money, but for the pure pleasure of teaching children. Their families are well to do and hold a respectable place in the society.
Some of them have taken teaching as a part of the family traditional, and the families are generally supportive towards women from their families teaching in schools, in fact they encourage women to go out and earn their own worth.
Mindset
The teachers are generally very well informed about the current affairs, but prefer to have a very traditional outlook towards situations in general. They take pride in talking about our traditions, our way of life, and specially clothes, but give a limited outlook into the other spheres like understanding the others point of view and respecting other peoples traditions. They also emphasize on the importance of primary education in the life of the individuals, time and again to the students, to encourage them to keep on learning. Learning through television serials also forms an important part of their teaching.
Potential problem areas
The furniture for the students as well as the teachers generally remains uncomfortable, and since a large part of their day is spent on this furniture in the school, it becomes problematic in the long run.
Language is a big problem for these teachers, as throughout, they only learn in Guajarati language. They have a very limited knowledge of languages like Hindi and English, but at the same time, they teach these languages to the kids, as a result the general teaching of other languages remains redundant. They have a problem of interacting with people, who are from non Guajarati background.
They have limited or no interaction with teachers from the other zila primary schools.
Because of the language problem, the knowledge of computers and internet also remains less, and therefore these subjects are not taught with a lot of ease.

Community –Ganpati Idol making community

Community search process-The whole process of community search itself has been very interesting. From kudasan (a village near gandhinager) to pashu-jaivik sansthan near torrent, craft mela in paldi and than gulbaipeth which is called Hollywood in Ahmedabad, the whole process has been very interesting learning process. The ganesha idol making community I had visited 6, 7 months back and that was somewhere in back of my mind.so in a way without going there again ,I could guess that it satisfies most of the criteria of “Community by trade “.
Brief of the communityt-This community of gulbai tekra is basicaly group of Artisans ,migrated from rajasthan 150 years back.They make ganesha idols from plaster of paris. According to them their ancestors had come here 150 years back. Previously they used to make “jute ki Rassi” because the raw material for making rope was easily available. When I asked how they shifted to this Idol making profession, they said one artisan came from Maharashtra and he taught this to some of the people in the community. Some people said that their great grand father went somewhere in Maharashtra in search of work and they learnt it from there. Every person has its own story to tell and that makes this whole research interesting.raw material for making idols is Pop,liquid rubber,coconut fiber and paint. They make the idols in different sizes and the price depends upon the size of the idols and can cost up to Rs.12, 000 for the bigger ones.production cost varies according to the size of the idols .overall production cost for 11 feet high idol is approximately5000 to 7000 .bring raw material like coconut fiber from south India to add it to the clay mould. Some of the artisans sell the coconut fiber amongst the community also .Because of being unorganised community they have their own sets of problem .Because of Lack of proper storage space they have to keep the moulds out in the open during the year, often damaging them. They then have to repair and make new moulds, wasting time and money. because of environmental issues some artisans have started making clay idols.

Additional informations- The large-scale celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi started in Pune in 1893 by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak to collect people for Indian nationalism and freedom struggle.he was one of the first to use Hinduism for a political and social goal, a tradition which has carried through Indian history to this day.Lord Ganesha was chosen as a rallying point for protest against British rule, because of his wide appeal as "the God for Everyman".Ganesha Chaturthi has grown to enormous proportions in Maharashtra and all over India and along with it the idols have grown to larger than life size.

Meeting with Sir Gajjar lal.
He is indeed the paramount of all the artisans at Pethpur . A marvel in himself Gajjar has been adorned with many national and international awards. His master pieces are kept in the most prestigious museums of art and craft across the world like Victoria Albert Museum in Londan.He has been covered by media a lot of time but it is such an irony to see Gajjar Lal (blind ,age 82)in small house with no one to take care of him , waiting for his Rs 1000 pension ,which never arrives. His art is dieing within him self. He calls himself Saudagar of Saudgairi(pahari style of carving intricate motifs on wood and metal) which he exportes to Siam (modern Thailand) in early in 1960,s.He has been in this business from the past 60 years ,when britishers were ruling India. He says that at that time there were almost 30 factories in Pethpur itself but now with

only 3 factories left this art will not last more than a decade.
He wanted to start up with his printing set up as well but customers never paid. Payment has always been a issue. The customers paid to the printers but the block makers always suffered. Even after conducting workshops at various place like Pragati Maidan for three years,In begium international trade fare ,in bangaedesh etc.this ancient art is dying and there is no help from the govt.Gajjar himself has been a part os ATS(apprentice training scheme) but the since the passion is a must to continue with a profession like this so everyone is now involving themselves in other jobs.

wooden block carving

Meeting with Ghanshyam Bhai
Unlike Govind, Ghanshyam works in a proper workshop, near Pethapur bus stand.Ghanshyam learnt the art of carving wood from his father after completing his 12th standard from Pethapur itself. He procures wood from old Ahmadabad for Rs 150, and then process it the same way as mentioned earlier. His father Lt. Mr. Poppat Lal, had set up this workshop in late 50s, it is currently owned by Ghansyam .The same artisans who used to work under his father ,work for Ghanshyam as well.” there is a shortage of laborers since the work load is increasing and no one is interested to learn it”
His own kids are studying in college and according to Ghansyam all those who can not do well in studies opt for this profession but as there is a lot of hard work involved in it so chances of making a successful business are rare.
Ghansyam makes 5-6 thousand per month, which is very less as compared to the amount of hard work which goes into this profession.
Another interesting thing that I missed at Govinds place is the test print which is taken once the block is complete. It gives a chance to correct errors in the block. The block is coated with Paper coat ink by using a roller which is handmade ,it is then that they take a imprint of it . All the tools in the workshop go for repair at Old Ahmedabad ,where they sharpen them. Other wear and tear is taken care by the local carpenters or by themselves. Unlike Govind who worked on a thick chunk of wood.Ghanshyam Bhai had carved thinner woods and also made it further smooth by rubbing sand on the surface.
When its too hot, the wood tends to crack while in rainy season there is lesser demand for the blocks as printing becomes a problem.

the breakfast and culture

I felt going to the shepherds in the morning would be the best thing to do. I went to them and I found everyone home. Four tents in total, they were distant relatives.
I met the first family where the couple was an old couple. they were performing their daily morning routine, wherein the lady was cooking food. She was making rotli's for the breakfast. She had an earthen 'tawa' and a chula within a corner of the tent used some wooden sticks to light it. The tawa was had a crack but it functioned well. The utensils were made of aluminium and steel. She had steel pots to bring in water. She had to fill in water from Kudasan a village far off i.e. 2 kms from the place of her residence. They did not have a source of water nearby. She used to the same water for all purposes washing and drinking. She offered me the breakfast with the buttermilk. It was a very nice rotli with ladyfinger cooked in buttermilk. This was a gujrati dish i suppose. but it was really tasty. She felt good when i ate it and only then did she open up and giving more information. I promised her to come and see the butter milk making process which i did later.
She wore a Banjaran dress(Ghagra, Choli and a duppatta covering her head). The mangalsutra was made in rajasthani style. The frail woman was very much aware of the people around. As soon as her mom in law cme, she covered her face.
They had charpai/khat to sit on or sleep at night. The men normally used it to sleep at night.
The women slept on the ground. The elderly person was sitting on it. He was a well built with white dhoti and kurta and special pink turban. He wore a huge 'kada' in his hand. He was first skeptical about what i was doing there but later spoke a lot.
The information: Their family hailed from Rajasthan. They went back home only thrice to four times a year. His kids were studying in rajasthan. They travelled the belt of Rajasthan, Gujrat, and maharashtra and back in the search of green pastures for their sheep. he had around 200 sheep. He had counted them. This was an approximate figure.
They supplied milk as a source of income. They did not have a place of their own to stay. They just settled anywhere. And kept moving as and when required. The amount rains in the farms might make them shift somewhere else within two days is an assurity.
(This is a report of 4 days earlier but did not get time to post it)

the shepherds

I wanted to find a community, where people were in the same as well as in the who formed the curious corners in my mind. I tried going to the villages like Sargasan and Kudasan. What I found out was there weren’t communities which i could plot in the scale.
Then I tried venturing in the market and identified the ‘lohar’ i.e. the people working with iron to make various tools required in the farm and labour work. I met one mr. Jakabhai in Dholakua and I met Mrs. Sitaben in Sector 2. I was interested. Their work profile was similar. After being around for an hour i realised that they are individual families and they did not really have trading ties.Even worse was the fact that they were die-hard competitors and did’nt at all care for each others trade. So i had to omit them from my list.
Then I tried meeting the ‘Golawallahs’. I spoke to three of them. 1 .in 16 sector. Near the Atm s . He informed me that they stayed in 24 sector. They had similar machinery. They had a similar market. They are a community who are in much sync with each other for better trade. There are places where they stand together for sale allowing each other the share of the customer share. But they all don’t live in 24 sector. Only two families did. The others stayed elsewhere, some in sector 2 and 3. In this quest of finding the right community, I was deeply thinking looking out of the hostel balcony I suddenly saw the sheep in the field nearby. And it came to my mind to go and meet them. Then I did get a chance when I saw Arjunbhai leading a flock of sheep. I asked him whether I could accompany him to his home to know more about the people there. He was amused but fine with it.
The shepherds (Nomads)
I went to Arjun Bhai the next day morning. He introduced me to his brothers who were staying there. It is a huge field in front of NID Gandhinagar. This farm / field belongs to someone from Ahmedabad. And they apparently pay him some amount (which he did not disclose, it made me not believe in him) These people have cycle of around 2-3 weeks in one place. They come with their flocks and settle in a place for some time. Their staple food was ‘rotli’ made of wheat and bajra. And a vegetable with it. They were mostly vegetarian people.
With 300 sheep to rear, any of the shepherds is engaged the whole day. The sheep are coloured with ‘gulal’ to mark the ownership. The main source of income would be 1. Milk, 2.The wool.
They also gather income from the farmers. The farmers employ them with their sheep so as to have readymade natural manure in their farms. They are also employed at times to clear the weeds in the farms. But otherwise the shepherds prefer the leftover lands or lands with no visible owners.
One major thing that I faced was the language. I took it as a challenge and tried to learn the language from the people themselves, trying to understand what they were saying on my own. I wanted to follow them, the way these people are. It was fun.
I finalised the Shepherd community as a community I was going to work with.

Community Search……
I began my journey of this Project by understanding.. What is a community? How is it formed? Then exploring a few communities like maids in the Bodakdev area near SG highway, Lathi bazaar near gomtipur, Blind man’s association, etc. I then crosschecked if the people I am meeting fit in the given criteria of a community- can I call them a community? Are they sharing infrastructure? Is community trading happening? Are they procuring resources from the similar places? That’s when I understood the community of disables people and blind people that I was more inclined in pursuing as my project topic are actually like us, the students committee of NID, the similarities among themselves are not in terms of trade. They are a part of an NGO- Blind man’s association, it is an organisation who is working towards giving them education and making them able to be self employed. After which I went about exploring more communities, meeting groups of people- mapping what’s common in them in terms of trade, infrastructure, resources that they procure, share, culture, society, etc.

Following are the communities I explored initially in groups with my classmates :
• Art and craft Exhibition, Paldi, Ahmedabad.
• Ganesh Murti makers, Gulbai tekra, nr. university area, Ahmedabad,
• Stone/ pebbles walas at Gulbai tekra, nr.university area, Ahmedabad,
• Raison village, specifically Raison school, Gandhinagar,
• Phool Bazar, Jamalpur, Ahmedabad,
• Muslim women community- Rakhi makers, Millatnagar, Ahmedabad.

In all the visits I tried to understand the social background they are coming for, how the community was formed, common aspects in their individual or family businesses, their problems, etc.

Ultimately I encountered Law Garden Market on the way and the colours, the crowd, the sense of competition, quite organised system of street hawking which is in one linear stretch fascinated me the most and decided on taking up this as my project.

Law garden market is located in the heart of the city Ahmedabad. It is famous for buying handicraft items, traditional navratri dresses and junk food.

I am focusing on the linear market stretch approximately 200 meters long outside the garden which is filled with street hawkers selling handicrafts products and traditional dresses with kutchi embroidery. The makers of such dresses belong to the “Rabaran” community, involved in this business from generations to generations.
During the day time, there routine from morning 9:00 am to 4:00 pm is to procure materials from the local market, purely logistics in which men of the family are involved, while as woman are involved in getting the dresses stitched, designing the dresses, hand stitching, etc, The business actually starts from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm in the law garden market.

I observed that there are multiple businesses happening in the market which makes it look lively and colourful as listed below:
Street Hawkers(Handicraftsmen) to the Customer.
• Marvari’s street hawkers selling taurans and decorative jumars;
• The Rabaran’s who have taken up the space in this linear market stretch since 45 to 50 years selling colourful chaniya cholli’s, bedspreads, cushion covers, bags, wall hangings, traditional kurti’s etc.
• Jewellery walas selling traditional mala’s, bangles, kada’s, navratri sets made up of metal which is later oxidized.

Thela wala’s to the Street hawkers.
• Chai wala’s providing chai, pan masala’s, bidi’s to these hawkers.
• Electricity providers who give bulbs and batteries on rent to these hawkers, etc.

The targeted people for this Community research Project of Social entrepreneurship are these people doing businesses to earn their daily bread in the law garden market. They themselves are the Buyers from the facility providers as well as the sellers to a wide customer audience from NRI’s to people all over the country visiting Ahmedabad, from tourists to the localites. Their Rosi Roti depends on this difference of monetary transactions that they perform. There is no record maintained of the exchanges that they do. These people are uneducated but skilled handicraftsmen. They have learnt this skill from there ancestors, these are family run businesses since last 50 years approximately. The market have evolved since then, earlier they use to sit at the road side outside the garden and do the same business, now Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have provided a raised platform and a mild steel fabricated stalls for these people. The variety of products/ dresses that they sell now are getting modernised and gradually easier ways to earn are penetrating in this market as a trend, which has increased the feeling of competition among themselves resulted into the immense bargaining. This interested me to taken as a project as it promotes the handicraft of Gujarat, making sure the essence, charm of traditional culture of the state is not vanished. Also, there business process involves all the attributes that a corporate organisation performs but scope in formulization and giving them there rights from the Municipal Corporation is needed vastly.

Having visited there almost everyday has given me deeper insights of the market, the densed business process they follow to survive, though they are uneducated people. These visits were helpful to extract the primary information for the project, but I think this is just the beginning…a lot more will follow.

Community search

Coolie

This is a community well known by every individual who travelled by train even once. It is a familiar figure clothed in red that sees us off and receives us after a long and tiring journey. They are the ones on whose head and shoulders rest our bag and baggage, while we continuously walk from one platform to another. This is referred to “The coolie” or “The Porter”.

There is no Pattern or way i followed to reach to this community. It's just clicked in the mind and i went about it. First i visited nearby railway stations of Gandhinagar and Sabarmati but did not find any coolie there.Then i finally moved to kalupur i.e. Ahemdabad railway station. I reached around 1100 hrs. There is a place outside the railway station for coolies to sit, rest, a chat. This place is made under the authority of railway coolie association. I met a group of 4 coolies who were relaxing. Two of them were reading newspapers, some taxi drivers were also their chatting with them. I went to them and started some conversation.

From them i got to know that most of the coolie’s are basically from small districts and towns of Rajasthan for e.g. Bharatpur, Gangapur city, Sawai Madhopur etc. The work of a coolie is very laborious & fatiguing. To become a coolie one’s need to be physically fit. The person having any diseases like bronchitis, heart related etc. is not eligible for the job. The minimum age required for this profession is 18 – 21. New entrants have to gone through certain processes like medical examination done by doctors. Also a Police verification by RPF (Railway protection force) & GRPF (Government Railway Police Force) to assure that the person is not having any criminal records. Security on railway is broadly shared by 3 different agencies 1.RPF, 2.GRPF, 3.DISTRICT POLICE.

After the entrance they get a golden arm badge with license number inscribed. They get one pair of red colour uniform for summer and winter. Although they have been serving the train passenger ever since the origin of the Indian Railway, licensed porters even today are not Railway employees. They do not follow any work timings. It is solely depends on them how much they can or they want to work in a particular day. There is no particular rates on which they charge any customer, sometimes customer gives them Rs.10 – 20 extra and sometimes he/she doesn’t agree upon the right amount even.

There is a waiting room or resting room provided to them at the last platform no. 12 where they can relax, take a nap. This waiting room is mainly used by those coolies who are unmarried or living alone. The coolies who are having families usually stay at places like narol, batua etc. where they get affordable accommodation. Some unmarried coolies make a group of 4-5 and take a rented room near railway station. They usually eat out at the dhabhas near to the station. They have a union i.e. Railway Coolie Association which take care of the issues related to their community. There is a amount they have to pay for the association i.e. Rs.60 per year.

As noticeable this community of workers literally thrives on load, making a living out of hard physical labour. Still there are coolies of aged 60 years & above. According to them there is no age limit for a porter, they can work till they die. One option for them is to transfer their license to their son or anyone they want. They are facing problems in the transferring.

i need to get more information for understanding to the core.You all are well come to comment.

Thank you

Community Search

Primary school teachers

School teachers are one of the first contacts of children to the outer world; therefore they form an important community in any society.

My community is search is based in a small, but relatively well to do village in gandhinagar named Kudasan. The village has one primary school upto std. 7^th, one secondary school upto std. 10^th and 3 anganwadi’s in the vicinity.

The primary school was started by the government in 1873, and the teachers are employed by the government. Their basic training takes place at PTC colleges, which are spread all across Gujarat. The teachers are first sent for an initial training of 10-20 days at various primary schools across Gujarat before they start teaching in the school.

The teachers are generally not transferred to other schools, unless they wish to do so at their own will. An interesting thing over here is that, all these teachers come from nearby locations ranging from Gandhinagar to Adalaj and other nearby villages, and most of them have done their training at the PTC College in Gandhinagar. Most of them are high school pass outs, and a few of them are also graduates.

Their pay scales are decided by the government and are lesser than that given to the secondary school teachers.

These people are generally much respected people in the community and parents trust them with their children., and are generally very trusted people in the society, when it comes to teaching the children about social values and generally educated the children about the health and other related factors. The products of this community are the children, who will shape the future of the country.

In the view of unicef:

Unicef believes in strengthening the existing system of these teachers rather than creating a new alternate system. Since the job involves a high degree of motivation, during their training, everyday 1 person is made to have a role-play of a motivator, and even after they start working, activities for motivation are recommended through the government.

But, apart from all this, they also admit that training is not the answer to every question, and sometimes, motivations like the monetary motivations become a bigger factor in this profession.

Schemes like ‘ Vidhyasahai’ are a part of such monetary incentive, where these primary school teachers are in a contract for 3-5 years for a fixed salary, and after that, according to seniority, and the work of each of the individual teachers, their payscale is increased to a certain value.

Community –Jamalpur

While I was searching for community it was very difficult for me to search for it as I was trying to look for community which 100% fits to a community definition. with some of my batch mates I started my journey around Gandhinagar , we visited village called Raisan village there we had difficulty to communicate as the local people were communicating in Gujarati, so we went to school located nearby to get brief overview of the village. There we found out various communities according to their social strata to be present and farming being their main soured of livelihood but things didn’t came out to be fruitful, then I was thinking of places where bricks are made and generally they are made at the outskirts of the city , so making bricks would be the major source of earning for their living moreover they would be living nearby to the factory. So I enquired about it but found out to be located very far off.

JAMALPUR FLOWER MARKET - The first time when I visited jamalpur was to buy flowers for my product photo shoot (open elective) but then I didn’t realised the importance of the place. The market is a whole sale market for flowers which had been shifted from teen darvaza, though some of the floweriest didn’t shifted to jamalpur . The Ahmedabad municipal cooperation had allocated the place for floweriest community. The jamalpur market started in 1989 and then thereafter they are continuing the same trade over generations, the majority of trader are from Gujarat. There are total 36 flower shops out of which some are whole sale dealers and some are retailers. The market starts at 5 in the morning, most of the whole sale trading is done upto 12.00 hrs. The major flowers that are sold are marigold, mogra, gallad, rajnigandha (phool chadi), jharmara. Golden greenery, ari ka patta rose which are bought from Bombay, nasik, pune, from suburb of ahmedabad and some expensive flowers are also imported from overseas. The main purpose for which customers buys flowers are puja’s, Birthday and marriages. From jamalpur flower are sold to retailer situates in ahmedabad like Navrangpura , CG road, satellite area etc . The main season when trade happens maximum is during marriages. The market doesn’t have fixed rates for flowers, it changes from day to day , its similar to share market where price of shares changes daily more over the uncertainty of demand and supply of flowers makes it very complex which in turn leads to large amount of wastage of flowers and also flower price depreciated during its shell life . On an average flowers shell life is 3- 4 days after which it is thrown in the river. The flowers like rose that are bought from Bombay nasik etc are transported through buses and then they are unloaded at ahmedabad further when it has reached ahmedabad it is transported to the main whole sale market (jamalpur) by tempo.

There are two type of seller in the market one who buys the flowers from the sellers and sells at the whole sale market and second is the farmers who pay the commission to the shop owner and he gives space, permits or sells as a representative of the shop. There are at least 3 people employed in every shop whether he is a direct wholesalers or indirect seller. The farmers travel from their villages at 4 am to reach jamalpur and still they are not sure they would be able to sell all their

It was interesting to see that in morning because of wholesale market, people from slums around jamalpur comes and buys flowers and starts making malla’s out of it just infront of wholesale market, though it is unofficial to sit outside the market and are allowed to sit by paying small ransom of 10 rupees for a week . Approximately 400 people sit out the market (including the family members who help them to make mallas) and make a sale of around 400 to 500 with raw material cost of 200 Rs.

The whole environment was electrifying and the way they work with each other to create a source of living to thousand of family and sub-communities is what fascinated me and pulling my thoughts towards working for them in a quiet aromatic way!!!! Looking forward to it..

Journey for Search of communities

I began my journey for finding a community by locating nearby villages as my perception of community drove me to a group of people who strictly reside with each other and are interdependent due to trade or otherwise.
With the help of local security guards, shortlisted Raisan village , near City Pulse, Gandhinagar.

Visit to Raisan Village
We went there at around 1000 hours and did not find many people on streets as they had apparently left home for their day's work. The most prominent building there was a primary school, which eventually became the epicenter of secondary information. The village comprises of four communities viz. Patels , Thakur , Rebari and Harijan (in order of their social status). A total population of approximately 1800 people live in this village which is accredited the first gokul village of Gujarat. The communities seemingly co-exist peacefully wherein about 30% residents owned cars ranging from Omni to Verna. This primary school catered to kids from the latter three communities of village while the 40% of population comprised of the “affluent” Patels, who governed the village for 25 years in name of gram panchayat, and prefer to send their kids to private schools.

Not very convinced with need for intervetion there, I went on, to look for more, now to Ahmedabad.

I visited Gulbaithekra and tried to seek an overview of business of two product based communities stationed there.

• POP Idols
  Location – Gulbaitekra , Ahmedabad
  Profession – Making idols of Plaster of Paris and fiber
  Nature of business – Seasonal, till Ganesh Chaturthi
  Summary-
  It is community of sculptors and artists who make “murtis” with POP, fiber, clay etc.
  It comprises predominantly of people whose forefathers migrated from Rajasthan and settled in Ahmedabad. They have inherited the art and are pursuing it as means of bread and butter. The process involves making the idol with clay with all intricate details, followed by development of a rubber casting/mould for the idol. This mould is used to make the final forms by filling POP/fiber along with coconut hay for strength. It is then left to dry. Further, finishing is done with sandpaper and then painted intricately.
  The POP is bought from nearby places like Gandhidham (@ 150/- per 30kg approximately).
  The artist gets Rs 100/- day for a 6 feet idol (takes about 4-5 days for this idol) which is sold for about Rs.4500. The main expenditure is incurred in making the mould (costs about Rs. 3000-5000), used for making multiple idols. The idols left from previous seasons are re-touched and sold in the next season.
  The customers come there as the location is renowned historically for this art and others go there by knowing through word of mouth when they need to get a job work done.
  The community resides in temporary houses and it comprises of labour workers as well as entrepreneurs who hire the artists to get the idols manufactured. A typical family comprises of 4-5 children, (2/3 children in school, rest dropouts).
  In the lean season, these artists work either on made to order idols or small decorative items, and look for daily wages labour work.
  

• Cut stone pieces
  Location – Gulbaitekra , Ahmedabad
  Profession – Retail of variety of stones and making installations / structures for waterfalls, bonsai plants etc.
  Nature of business – All the year round with peaks and lows
  Summary-
  A community of families who sell stones procured from Gulf of Kambhat, Rajasthan, Dehradun , Chandigarh etc. These stones are sold by weight. Since, stone purchasing is not very popular in urban population; they earn their livelihood mainly on labour orders of making fountains, tabletops, installations, structures for trees and bonsai plants etc. The entire family including the lady and children are involved in the trade. In a typical labour order, they procure stones from their in-house stock, take additional labour from their colony if required and buy plumbing motor etc from market and deliver a ready to use installation / fountain. They get their orders from acquaintances, word of mouth and contractors/architects with whom they have already worked in the past. They maintain a catalog of their work by means of an album of photographs of their art.
  In case of no order, they look for job works and labour tasks that are based on daily wages.
  Some people also do gardening, plantations etc in nearby colonies, to make their both ends meet. The uncertainty involved in the trade is threatening as there are times when there is not a single sale , not a penny worth order , for 10-15 days at a stretch.
  

Rakhi manufacturers , Millatnagar - The final destination
Next, we (me and Prasurjya) wanted to explore the Rakhi manufacturers of Ahmedabad who are famous across the country for their craft. With a vague idea of a muslim colony, we went ahead and incidentally met an auto rikshaw driver ‘Suleiman bhai’ of the same community. He drove us to Millatnagar , and after being convinced about our intentions he introduced us to a localite of the colony. Thanks to him, we could enter, talk and revisit the place; otherwise the community would not have allowed us to step also in their zone.
We entered a narrow lane; big enough to let only two of us walk side by side, flanked by houses on both the sides. The houses were predominantly ‘pucca houses’, barely 7 x 12 feet in area. As soon as I peeped in the first house, I saw three women working on Rakhis. With their obvious apprehensions, they shared some information. Later, as we moved in this lane called Dosamkhan Pathan ki chaal , we found ladies sitting at doorsteps, talking to each other and working on Rakhis.

A glance of their trade is as below :

• Rakhi making
  Location – Millatnagar , Ahmedabad
  Profession – Making Rakhis for Rakshabandhan
  Nature of business – Seasonal
  Summary-
  A Muslim community residing in Millatnagar, has migrated, primarily from Uttar Pradesh, to work in textile mills of Ahmedabad about 30-40 years ago. The ladies of the house engaged themselves in the task of making Rakhis as a past time. Eventually, some of the millworkers also took up this profession after some of the mills had shut down.
  These people work as labour and are paid / gross (144pcs). All the women of family are involved in the intricate task of assembly of a rakhi, wherein the raw material is provided by the trader along with a sample, which needs to be replicated. The remuneration is based on the intricacy of task and time involved in making a gross of a particular design of rakhi.
  In a typical calendar year, the Rakhi work starts after Diwali and goes on till Rakhshabandhan. The lean season is driven by manufacturing of accessories for Garba festival.
  Something about it really fascinated me, especially the delicate cross religion connection and the inter-relatedness of the people, though the area around was a put off with smell of meat and chicken (vegetarian me!!).
  A strange observation was concerning the wage rates of this Rakhi labour, which have been decreasing with time when the entire world is moving up the ladder.
  I have decided to probe into this community to introduce them to the world and vice versa in my endeavor to help them to live better lives.