The fish market behind the power house is very popular among the Gandhinagar residents. With just three fish mongers the community is small and closely connected. Manju Bhen the oldest in the community acts as the spokesperson for all of them. All my questions were answered by her, even the other members of the community preferred Manju bhen to do the talking.
Profiles of the community members:
Manju Bhen:
Manju Bhen is in her early fifties. She is loud, talks a lot and knows her trade very well. The other members in the community look up to her. She is married and has five kids (four daughters and one son). Three of her daughters are married and settled. Her youngest daughter has studied till 8th standard. Manju Bhen has been selling fish for the past seven years and her husband also helps her. She is not educated and she lives in a chawl in sector – 21 for which she pays no rent.
Ibrahim Bhai:
He is 35 years old. Before getting into the fish business he was selling meat. He is in the business for the past four years. He is married and has two kids (one boy and girl).
Dhanu Bhen:
She is in her late forties. Communication was a problem because of her ability to only understand Gujrati.
Community by sharing:
Members of the community hail from different parts of Gujarat and share very few traditions among themselves. For example Ibrahim Bhai is a Muslim, he doesn’t share common traditions or practices with the other members of the community. But what they share commonly is the way they have evolved as fish mongers. All of them have spent more than five years in the business and have struggled to reach where they are now.
Common income source:
The fish market opens around 8’o clock in the morning and shuts around 7 in the night. The business is brisk between 8 to 10 and 5 to 7 in the weekdays, in the weekends there is business throughout the day.
Though the community sells fishes, variety changes from person to person. Manju Bhen usually has more variety than the rest.
Selling fish is the major source of income for the members of the community. Though there are other minor sources of income (for example Manju bhen’s daughter works as a maid in the neighbourhood houses) the community is solely dependent on the fish market.
Common Resources:
The community shares a small piece of land behind the Gandhinagar powerhouse. The land is illegal but they have managed to hold onto this place for quite some time. There is no proper infrastructure to display the fishes or to store them. Each one owns a plastic ice box where they store the fishes. The shops are very basic and temporary. They are just four sticks put together and covered with a thick plastic sheet for protection.
Every day they set out in the morning for their daily purchase from the meat and fish market in Teen Darwaza. They have a regular auto driver who charges them 400 rupees for a round trip. The transportation charges are shared equally. They buy their ‘maal’ (produce in their language) mainly on credit.
They price the products ten rupees more than the actual rate. Ten rupees is a standard profit margin but the margin changes according to the customers. Prices are also highly dependent on weather conditions, variety, availability, quality of the fish and the time.
The customer base consists of large number of south Indians and the people from the nearby army settlement. One important factor about this community is they don’t compete with each other. So they don’t try to fight or out smart one another.
Communication pattern:
As mentioned earlier the community shares the same space, common produce and a common consumer base. Moreover the difficulty in getting fresh fish in Gandhinagar drives people to this market. The only other option is the state run fish shop in sector 21. So they really don’t advertise or attract the consumers find them wherever they are. Manju Bhen cited the example of a business man who travels all the way from Adalaj to the fish market.
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