whose secondary profession is manufacturing rakhis (Context). Following is an analysis of the community based on the given parameters.The residents have migrated (History) from the village called Gorakhpur about 35-40 years ago to work in textile mills. These people having their roots in the agricultural families (Origin) of UP, have shifted to Ahmadabad as this city was able to give them a fixed source of income to sustain their families. The men shifted here in groups of 10-15, looked for factories to work and upon streamlining their life here, called their families to settle (Evolution) here. These people, who are followers of various sects of Islam (Tradition), have evolved in Millatnagar and have constructed their own houses equipped with basic amenities. Three generations are residing in a joint family system where all the members try to contribute in the family’s income by means of their labor.
--Common Income Source
The primary source of income of the families is the factories and textile mills where males of the families work either as operators of various machines. The other trade of the community is workmanship oriented jobs like tailoring, machine embroidery, and blacksmithing etc. (Earning). The women of the family stay at homes and apart from household work, engage themselves in handcrafting RAKHI which is used as pious thread in Hindu culture to mark the love of a brother and his sister. The festival is popularly known as Raksha bandhan and the local manufacturing of all the Rakhis alias rakhdis of Ahmadabad happens in the homes of Millatnagar or some units stationed in Gomtinagar. The women took up this profession, if we can call so, to support their family financially in whatever little way they can. The other reason was that they wanted to make the best use of the available time at their disposal. And due to conservative outlook of their families, they would not be allowed to go out to work. Hence, rakhi making is aptly the secondary source of income.
The females of the family (from young girls to old grandmothers), engage themselves in the art of rakhi making. They handcraft the product by making each piece (Produce) similar to a sample provided to them. They provide ‘assembling’ services (Service) wherein they are paid for the labor (peanuts though) that they put in bring together each strand of a rakhi.
They have taken up this profession as they can perceive backward assembly (techniques involved) of a rakhi sample and then manufacture the same rakhi (Expertise). They do not require any additional training or learning new art for the same. The rakhis are handmade and employ various hand techniques like separation of strands of threads, various types of braiding, beading, tying, knotting, stitching etc. along with a good eye for small details (Techniques).
Also, since the females of the family are being exposed to these techniques from a very young age, the art is inherited and thereafter practiced by them.
--Communication pattern
The trade is practiced by all females comprising of women of a family across all age groups. The families, in fact the mohalla has been known for it’s craftswomen. There are middlemen of the trade called seith who reside in the same lane. This mohalla comprises of 3-4 of them. The seith knows all the families since long time association (Showcasing / Marketing). He is the one who interacts with the manufacturer (wholesaler / investor) and gets the raw material from them for distribution among the labor women, gets the work done and submits the rakhis back to the manufacturer. The distribution of work happens on acquaintance, past experience, delivery commitment (Selling) and best price offered (Attracting) by the family. Hence the seith is the mediator between the manufacturers by designation (i.e. the investors) and actual manufacturers (i.e. the laborers) and it is at his discretion that how much work should be given to whom and at what rate. The women go to his (the seith’s) house to collect raw material (and the assignment) as well as to deliver the produce. There is a credit log maintained by the seith as well as the lady worker(s) and they redeem the cash whenever they require. The seith gives these ladies a small pocket diary and makes an entry of her of the amount of work done by her, every time she goes to give the manufactured rakhis (Credit system).
--Common Resources
Since all the craftswomen interact with the seith only, he is the common market as well as the customer for the rakhis made by them (Market). The mohalla comprises of 3-4 seith as mentioned earlier. They are able to make a gross (144 pcs) rakhis in 1-4 days depending on the design (Produce). Apart from their skill, there are no additional infrastructure requirements besides a place to sit i.e their homes or the stairs of the entrances of their houses (Space), containers to put beads / decorations etc. (often used from their kitchen), and a stool which is used for tying rakhis and braiding them. Tools like needle, threa
d, and scissors are also used (Infrastructure). The labor is priced anywhere between 3-4 Rs. /gross to 18-22 Rs. /gross in accordance with the time consumed to manufacture one gross and the complexity of design (Pricing). There is no fixed wage rate and no harmony among the women as far as their quotation for remuneration is concerned. They tend to bid a low price to grab more and more work which they actually get as the middlemen also make the most profit out of such deals. The ladies end up earning approximately 22 – 30 Rs. in 2-4 days. The end customers for the rakhis manufactured by them are villagers or middle and low income groups of Hindu society (i.e. who celebrate Raksha Bandhan) across Gujarat and neighboring regions (Customers). Since the seith’s house is in the neighborhood, the ladies walk up to him to do a home delivery of the work done and procure more work (Transport / Commuting). The seith uses various means of transportation as state transport system, or a cycle to go the wholesalers placed in Takshaal, Gandhi bridge and Kalupur bridge.
--Common Pattern
The women start working on the rakhi craft after getting free from their daily chores in the morning. It includes cleaning house, cooking food, helping children / husband to get ready for the day’s work /school. The work begins at around 10-11 am and continues till lunch time. Post lunch, some ladies prefer to take a nap and tea before they resume work and continue the same till supper preparation time (Trade timing). The others continue to work till their husbands come back home. They procure or deliver to the seith in mornings and evenings only as during the day the seith goes to the market. Only if they run out of any raw material, they go to the seith during the day and are dealt by the seith’s wife. The other activities of women include getting vegetables and raashan from market (just outside the mohalla).
The rakhi work begins after Diwali (they say after Id-ul-Fitr) and continues till Raksha bandhan (Trade cycle) . Three months are no-rakhi months when they seek other jobs like making accessories for the popular navratra season and garba. Hence, the tertiary occupation of the community is to handcraft various products of beads, ribbons, golden and silver gota for the festive season of Gujarat (Lean season occupation). The same skill set and infrastructure is required to manufacture them as essential for rakhi. Often the same seith gives them this work also.
An overview of their livelihood, education and environment
The families live in their one room + kitchen cum room set alias kholi (approx. 8 x 12 feet in area). This area is occupied by a family of 10-12 (in some cases even more) people on an average. These houses are lined wall to wall, facing each other across two lanes. The primary source of income is generated by the males of the family. The trade of rakhi is just a supporting source. The average income of a household is 5000-8,000 Rs. /month depending on the number of working male members of the family, average salary of an earning male being Rs. 3000 /- to Rs. 4500/- and each family comprising of usually 2 working males. Since this 
amount is bare minimum to support their families, they have to often take household groceries on credit from the local baniya . Special ceremonies like marriages, birth, death etc. are additional expenses and are usually borne by means of credit / loan from the places of work and relatives. Though there is a system of community wedding in Ahmadabad, conducted by Islam Association of Ahmadabad which facilitates the entire ceremony along with the rituals, dowry and gifts at a meager amount of Rs. 2000/- upon prior registration; these people prefer to have independent marriages even when they are under huge debts already.
Most of the families have a pet goat which is kept for sacrifice on Id. The bigger the size of the goat, higher is the status of the family as the same is distributed in the neighborhood upon offerings made to God.
The working males have a varied education background as they have studied in UP. They are 4th (class) pass till 10th (class) pass. They are educating their children – boys till 10th class and further if possible and girls till 5th -7th class. The daughter’s education may be sacrificed for a son’s education as it is more important for the family. The daughter is prepared for marriage after 6th -7th class and she contributes in household work as well as the trade of rakhi.
Each house is equipped with electricity supply supported by torrent meters. Most of the houses also have television sets with cable connections. They love watching TV serials and ‘Balika vadhu’ , ‘Utaran’ , ‘Hamari devrani’ are among the most popular ones. They often watch serial repetitions during the day time while making rakhis. They can operate TV remotes and have a clear understanding of various scales of measurement like rupees, wage rates, gross, kilograms, centimeters etc. They also have a fair understanding of length measurement (size of band of one rakhi for it to fit on wrist)and quality determination like thread cutting , quality of knots tied etc. and can separate the defective raw material and return it back to seith.
Primary resources and processing (in case of services, the process of service)
Besides the infrastructure, simple domestic tools and inherited skill set already mentioned, there are no other resources used
. The process has been in formulated slowly but surely over a period since the profession came into existence. The seith goes to the manufacturer / wholesaler based in old Ahmadabad (i.e. Takshal , Gandhi bridge etc.). The manufacturer gives a measured quantity of raw material for a particular sample and according to the desired quantity to the middleman, which is further distributed to the ladies on the basis of his choice and past experience with the particular family / ladies. The wholesaler fixes a price/gross for the middleman on the basis of design and it depends on the middleman how much can he negotiate with the labor and strike the best deal for himself. There exists competition between families and hence in order to grab more and more work, they quote lesser and lesser pricing and end up under pricing themselves. This has led to a reduction of labor price / gross from an average of 25-30 Rs. / gross t0 12-18 Rs. / gross over a span of last 15-20 years. This is happening because of increase in the number of people and hence the families in the trade. The ladies procure raw material and give the finished rakhis back to the middleman in the morning / evening. The finished rakhis are in turn supplied to the wholesaler the next day. The craftswomen visit the wholesaler every 3-4 days and are able to supply 1-3 gross in each visit. Retailers procure rakhi from wholesalers and sell to the end consumer.
Have spoken to residents and am in the process of understanding the business model of rakhis. The challenge is that festival of Raksha Bandhan is fast approaching and the retail market of rakhis will cease shortly. The opportunity will be in observing what is done immediately after the festival, during the lean period both by the community as well as other stakeholders in the supply chain.
P.S. (Parameters) for community
Thank you so much Shuchi for sharing.Sounds very interesting.Wish you all in advance a joyful Raksha bandhan.
ReplyDeleteCheers!!
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