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.