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..