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 manufa
cturers 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.
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