Dharavi Kumbharwada: Female Artisans as Casual Workers
Director: Richa Hushing; Cinematographer: Tapan Vyas
Duration: 00:22:57; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 16.947; Saturation: 0.288; Lightness: 0.228; Volume: 0.184; Cuts per Minute: 8.321; Words per Minute: 79.809
Summary: Dharavi is a slum most popularly termed as the Asia’s biggest slum. Known to be one of the densest and most layered human settlements in the world, the origin of Dharavi can be traced back to early 19th Century, at the height of the industrialization in the region. Dharavi is an area, which was originally located at the northern periphery of Bombay, but with boundaries of this ever-growing city constantly extending on all sides it has come to occupy prime location today. Home to approximately one million people, Dharavi populace includes diverse language groups, religious communities and economic units. Most of the citizens of Dharavi are urban artisans, functioning out of the outer space of their living quarters. This seamlessness in working and living space, over the decades, has resulted not only in high number of female wage earners but also facilitated occupations to an entire family, making it some sort of a family business.
Following is a story of a business unit hosted at a home in Kumbharwada (potters’ colony) Wadi 1. Kumbharwada is broadly divided in 4 areas termed as wadis. Wadi 1 was the first of the settlements and thus has more spacious units than the other sectors. The space in Kumbharwada houses cannot be measured by floor space. Each structure is multistoried with many mezzanine floors in-between. Thus the floor space is much more than the ground space. In Wadi 1 some mud houses with typical architecture can still be seen. This particular house belongs to Ghanshodbhai Tank, one of the most prosperous potter in the area. (see the event ‘Dharavi redevelopment: Cityscape and Citizenship’ in this site) The house has four structures around a central courtyard and the accumulated floor space would be more than 5000 square feet. One structure is used for low end production of diyas (oil lamps) and small pots. The other structure is used for high end production of big pots. The other two structures are residential units. The roof top of all structures are used for sun drying of the clay pots. Behind the houses are two round kilns popularly called as ‘Goal Bhattis’. Round kilns are superior than the rectangular ones and in the entire Kumbharwada these are the only two functioning round kilns. These bhattis are estimated to be 150 years old.
Women from the neighbourhood come together every afternoon to polish the pots and earn their daily wages along with some of the less fortunate relatives of the family. The shooting is happening inside the production workshop which is three storied. In the ground floor women prepare the clay and make clay casts. While the diyas and other smaller wares are made directly on wheels, the large pots are first moulded and then put on wheels. After the casts are ready the UP Bhaiyas put them on the wheel and make pots. Then the pots go to the terrace (on top of the 2nd floor) to get dried. After the sun dry the pots are put on the bhatti for baking. After baking (depending on the clay quality and requirement of finish quality some baked pots are dried again in the sun). After the pots are properly dried the larger ones come for polishing and colouring. Women are involved at the first phase of making cast, at various stages of drying and then the last stage of polishing, colouring and decorating. The wheels are sometimes ran by the migrant wage workers from UP (Bhaiyas). Though the wheel work is traditionally known as superior job and women are prohibited to do that, these days the Kumbhar women in this kind of a set up severely bully the male migrant workers (bhaiyas) on the wheels in order to settle century old grudges. So the gender, class and migration stature get complicatedly entangled here. With the presence of women workers who live in the same neighbourhood, the workshop turns into a community place to share, gossip and laugh together.
The footage is a glimpse into the multilayered housing and multi-faceted life in the Kumbharwada. Layers and layers of spaces… like a vertical labyrinth… you never know from where a head would pop up or from where a pair of feet would dangle.
Shot by: Tapan Vyas
(out of camera with loud lughter)-Who will do my mother's work? Who will do it?-You are there, no? You do it.-Where will I wash everything? I have to wash the ghagra, and ofcourse THE jeans also….-Wash for one person, then you have to wash for another also.-So?! you have to do that. You have to wash it everyday. (the chat is punctuated with heavy giggles and laughter) (to the interviewer) -come to our place… next to the police station…-If you come how would you know the place… next to the station is the potters' shop…
House of Ghanshorebhai Tank, a prosperous potter in Kumbharwada. Many casual workers, both men and women, work in his workshop which is on the other side of his living quarters. The team of casual workers comprise of potter men, migrant male workers from UP and potter women. All the works in pottery – making clay, drying the pots, carrying them for baking, polishing the baked pots, colouring the pots and then delivery to retail shops – are done by the women independently or along with the men. But they are traditionally not allowed to sit in the potters' wheel. Though the hired male workers, often migrants from other regions and other communities, are seen to work on the wheel.
Top angle shot of the workshop from the upper level – casual male workers are working on the moulded big pots on the potters' wheel. Some women are preparing the clay, making moulds for big pots. Shots of the storage room full of large baked and polished pots
At the upper level (where the camera is) the polishing of baked pots is taking place. The voices of the women chirruping and giggling on the sound track.
Dharavi
Dharavi
Kumbharwada
Kumbharwada
Mumbai
Mumbai
Uttar Pradesh
afternoon
chat
communal work space
community
female wage earners
friendship
giggle
household chores
kiln
laughter
livelihood
polishing pots
split level
tradition
trap door
urban artisans
workshop
Dharavi
Kumbharwada sector 1
Mumbai
Top angle shot of 7 women working in the polishing unit of the workshop. This is an exclusively women's job. These women are from the neighbourhood and belong to the potters' community. Some of them are related to the employer. They come together in the afternoon after finishing the household chores to work in this place as wage workers. Women are working furiously as well as chatting and laughing incessantly. Due to the light banters and giggles the severity of the hard work is camouflaged. They use garlands of soft wood and soft cotton cloth to polish the large baked pots. More you scrub it better the glaze of the polish is. The job needs strength and energy. The average potter women, like the fisher women in this city, posses good health and commanding postures. These women are a picture of strong, confident middle aged working women.
(to each other)-Today no work got done. Since morning the day has gone wrong…
- for me too…
- this piece is done… today is the day of kiln burning (bhatti). That day it was too stuffy, too hot also…
Close shots of the polishing process. Sunlight enters through the thatched roof and illuminates some faces. Somebody scrubs a pot with folds of wooden garland and another spreads mud colour on some baked pots – the workers and the artisans. The women get slightly annoyed with the middle class naiveté of the shooting crew. They explain the grueling daily routine as matter of fact and also with certain pride. Pride in the fact of being able to accomplish so much work. They refuse to fall into the victim mode. In traditional potters' families women are part of every aspect of the production and marketing, except for sitting on potters' wheels. But when it comes to a pleasure trip there is a complete blank draw. With difficulty one woman could recall a day long trip to a religious institution 5 kilometers away from her residence. As they talk the furious pace of scrubbing and polishing continues. The hands never stop.
Goregaon
Mumbai
Nasik
Q: What is the significance of soil to you?
-means?
Q: I mean… soil… hey please translate…
Translator: (in Gujarati) What is the significance of soil?
- Soil is our life… at the centre of everything. This is not a matter of one generation… our father's father's father's father's have been doing this. But our children would not do this….
Q: How do you cope between the pottery work and the domestic work.
-It gets done. We don't do only one kind of work. We do the domestic chores, then work here, and then also carry the load all the way to Goregaon… then come back and do the painting works at home… we do everything… nobody can work as hard as the Kumbhar (potters) women. We get up at 6'0 clock in the morning and first take bath… brush our teeth and then bath… without bath we don't even drink water. First bath and then drinking water. However thirsty one maybe but a woman will not drink water… after bath we store water… clean the pots etc. Then we make breakfast, pack tiffins (lunch boxes) for others… if there are school going children then go to drop them at school. So full… whole day we have work and work… still we manage to sleep for two hours in the afternoon… after finishing so muck work.
Q: Do you go on vacation or not?
- This is our vacation… vacation in the pot. Sometime we go… once in a while…
Q: But people in jobs take vacation… go somewhere during Diwali… don't you get vacation?
- We go sometimes… somewhere close by… we cannot go very far.
Q: Have you been to Shirdi or Nasik?
- No. Who knows where is Shirdi and where is Nasik (these are popular pilgrimage places).
Q: Last where did you go for a trip?
- Last… for a trip… In the last extra month (by Hindu calendar every three years there is an extra month to adjust the excess days) we went to this place… Parla (nickname for Vile Parle which is within 5/6 kilometers of Dharavi) … Parla Sanyas Ashram (it is a religious institution with several temples, residential places for the saints and public programme). We took the children along and carried food from home and all of us went. We spent the whole day there and came back in the night.
- Our life is ok. We work and be happy.
- Women have to work… inflation… children go to colleges, their education… other expenses…
Shirdi
Vile Parle
afternoon siesta
ancestry
baking
clay
community
daily routine
dharavi
diwali
domesticity
expenses
female wage earners
festival
forefathers
holiday
household
inflation
kumbharwada
legacy
livelihood
male prerogative
manual work
mumbai
outing
painting
picnic
pleasure trip
pots
potters' wheel
prohibition
storing water
tradition
urban artisans
vacation
vending
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Matunga, Dadar, Mumbai
Q: During Diwali:- we put colour, clean the house, wash everything, we draw rangoli (colour pattern on the floor), light the lamps… tie the toran (decoration sequins) on the door frame- Put electric light decoration,Q: Who goes to shop for all these?- I go, my daughter goes.. to Matunga, to Dadar. Now we don't go. These days they even come to our doorstep to sell… Q: You make diyas (oil lamps)… do you use the same in your houses?- Yes.. a lot… many…- No… we put only two diyas (they lough at their own jokes) - Ok… four…- Ghanshodbhai's (employer's) wife puts a lot of diya. She puts them at home and outside too. - She has lot of spare time to light the diyas. So she lights a lot of diyas… she is my sister-in-law. (it is a good humored dig at somebody who is their employer's wife and also related to one of them)
They pull the interviewer's leg over silly questions. They gossip, make snide remarks at the employer's wife and just laugh at the slightest pretext. It is the communal work place. But it is also the space to unwind with the friends. The common woes bond them tight, but a shared laugh bring them even closer. One of them is known to be in an informal relationship with the employer. So the banters carry many hidden agenda too. Earlier these women used to go out to the market atleast once in a while to shop for some festivals. These days vendors supply everything at the doorstep. So those outings have also stopped.
banter
bond
celebration
community
dharavi
diwali
diya
female wage earners
festival
friends
fun
gossip
joke
kumbharwada
laugh
light decoration
livelihood
mumbai
neighbours
oil lamp
rangoli
urban artisans
vendor
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
Their ease with an unfamiliar object such as camera is remarkable. Every person, to an extent, performs in front of the camera. But these women perform with a relative ease, confidence and authority. Maybe that is a part of the collective appearance. They are far more absorbed into each other and the work than to care for other visitors or the camera. Their abundance is very endearing. As one of them wears the headphone other mocks the ritual of interview – am fine… I have no complaint… etc.
Talks turn to a new marriage alliance. The bride to be would not do the 'work' that these women do. She would only do the house work. Maybe her work load will be less than her predecessors. But she would neither have this kind of friendship nor any clue about the outside world. But the apparently inane conversation is loaded heavily with laughter – indicating more meaning to it than is obvious.
(One wears the headphone and can't sop giggling with the effect.) Q: You say something she will be able to hear you…
"- what do I say? Ok… everything is fine and I have no complaint about anything… my husband is also quite ok…
-what what?
- He sometimes he flares up and I need to cool him down. But overall he is ok…
- Heyyy, Your voice too is coming in. Now you put on… (puts the headphone on another woman)
Q: Now you talk… (jumbled up conversation follow)
- … so and so is getting married…
Q: What are you saying. when?
- Tomorrow.
-They wanted it to happen last year… but the father-in-law is in the ship…
- Bacause he is in the ship the marriage could not take place. How to hold wedding without the father.
- She works at home… does not go out to work.
Q: Does she do pottery?
- No, not pottery. She does all housework – washing clothes, cleaning vessels, cooking 3 times…
- These days girls do not do this work…
- Collecting water… sometimes somebody calls for some work – so goes there… (laughs) we clean teeth (laughs loudly)
- (calls out to somebody) Hey, want to do some shooting…
- (laughs)… oh… I got tears with laughter… then we get up, take bath, touch the feet of the god, tend to the god, drink tea, collect water…
alliance
banter
bride
camera
chores
community
confidence
dharavi
ease
female wage earners
friendship
giggle
good humoured
head phone
household work
housewife
irony
joke
kumbharwada
laughter
livelihood
marriage
mumbai
neighbour
outside world
performance
potters' job
pottery
routine
urban artisans
wedding
work load
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
Mid shot of one woman. She is most articulate of them all. The essential migration of married women. In this case the women become double migrants. Their lives shift from the native places to the metropolis. Besides a shift happens in terms of work in the public place. Young and sheltered teen age girls are thrown into the labour market in the metropolis.
- In childhood at mothers' we were raised with lot of love… we did not do any work… just did little house work. At our time our parents did not allow us to go out of the house. At the most we were allowed to study till 5th grade – not more than that. Daughters are to remain at home, not to go out… Hey don't laugh (her friends off frame laughs loudly and nothing can be heard)… We just used to cook at home, look after the visitors… that's all. Then at the age of 18/19 we were married off. After marriage - for 10/12 years it was good. After that it is over. (more laughter) Then the fun is over… well life goes on.
adult life
brought up
childhood
community
conjugal life
desire
dharavi
education
female wage earners
kumbharwada
labour market
livelihood
married women
memory
metropolis
migration
mumbai
native place
parental house
parents
partnership
public place
raised
study
urban artisans
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
Q: What did you do in the first 10/12 years in the marriage?
-For 10/12 years… had fun… what else.
-Then what happened later?
- He goes to work…What to say… our life has become…. Morning he goes to work… in the night also- 'I `ll have to go for work in the morning… I` ll have to go'. In sleep also he sees only work. For 10/12 years we had real fun. (more laughter and suddenly a poignant pause) Whatever is in one's fate one will have to suffer that. Whom can we complaint to? (to the interviewer) Why didn't you get married?
Interviewer: Don't feel like it.
- You must. Its fun. Experience the marriage and then complaint. How I have got married – like that you also must do. Then you tell me how does it feel to be married. Then I will interview you. Today you interview me. I shall ask you… so sister, how is it going? Good… no?
-Is your pot ready?
- Ya, I didn't even realize when the work got done while laughing!
Suddenly the discussion turns serious. One woman talks about the frustration of married life, the effect of working class life and work patterns on the conjugal relationship. She laments the bed death syndrome. A woman in her thirties candidly admits unfulfilled desires and eventual loneliness. The sweat shop work pattern of the unorganized sector, the commuting hazard of the metropolis and the demand of a large family destroy the quality of conjugal life much before the body is ready for it. Then it is only 'the sweat of thy brow' and 'lack of thy bread'.
banter
community
commuting
conjugal life
dead bed
desire
dharavi
energy
enjoy
family life
female wage earners
frustration
fun
interview
interviewer
kumbharwada
laughter
life cycle
life pattern
livelihood
marriage
married life
metropolis
mumbai
night
pause
poignant
polishing
pots
responsibility
sigh
smile
sweat shop
urban artisans
work
work pattern
work pressure
work schedule
working class
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
Q: You work so much – some money comes to your hands or not?
- Yea a lot. We blow them away….
Q: No seriously. It comes to you or goes to your men?
- No. They give it us.
- (gujarati) Why men… we work so hard.
-would you give yours to your man?
- Men give their earnings too to us. Anyway it is nothing much… earn and eat it up. That's all.
The spell is broken with the usual pace of work. The collective nature of the work and the talk is resumed. Camera follows their working hands polishing, colouring large earthen pots.
community
dharavi
earnings
earthen pot
female wage earners
kumbharwada
livelihood
money
mumbai
pace of work
polishing
urban artisans
A top angle wide shot. The ray of sunlight falls through the window. Passing through the shelf-ful of clay pots the sunlight create a pattern on the wall, on the faces of the women. The women indulge into more practical and standard talk. They are also preparing to end the day's work and go back to the domestic chores. They mildly complaint about somebody who lights the kiln everyday. It is double sided. A snide remarks about his solvency due to which he needs to bake fresh pots everyday. Besides, complaining about the smoke from the kiln that suffocate everybody. The smoke from the kiln has been at the eye of the storm for a long time. Considered as a major health hazard it is cited as one of the main reasons for Dharavi redevelopment. (for more information on this issue please see event 'Dharavi redevelopment_Cityscape & citizenship' in this site). She also talks about the back pain – an eventuality for anyone who carried heavy load for a long time. This is the same woman who a few minutes back talked about frustration of conjugal life. At that point she was demanding more attention from her partner and generally from life. And now there is sense of resignation.
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Goregaon, Mumbai
-Where we live there is lot of smoke. Whole lot of smoke. My next door neighbour lights the kiln (bhatti) everyday. (laughter indicating a gossip that he is too crazy after money). I swear… he does. Everyday… every night. You came yesterday and there was lot of smoke, right? He had his Klin burning. He must have unloaded the kiln in the morning and now he would put up the fire again. That is how he behaves… everyday. Because of this we should shift out. But there is no money.
Q: So which floor would you like to live on – first floor? Fifth floor? Or tenth?
- No way, my back is broken. I want only the ground… Since last one month I don't go to work, don't do the loading-delivery work. For 17 years I carried the load basket… here take this one (hands over a polished pot)… for 17 years I carried the goods to Goregaon. Now since last month I have stopped going. My son stopped me. He said, Mummy don't go. Do as much as you can do here…
Well, I do take some medicine. With medicine sometimes it improves, then it starts again. The son says, now you stop everything. No carrying load anymore.
artisan
attention
back pain
chatter
chores
clay pots
commodity
compensation
complaint
dharavi
domestic
family
female potter
gossip
ground floor
high rise building
indulge
interview
issue
kiln
kumbharwada
labourer
land
life
load
loader
mediacal treatment
mumbai
partner
policy
polishing
public health
redevelopment
resignation
smoke
snide remark
storage
sunlight
wage workers
wide shot
window
workshop
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
The Dharavi redelopment policy is being formulated by the SRA (slum rehabilitation authority), which is a broader body working in the metropolitan region of Bombay and DRC (Dharavi redevelopment committee) constituted specially to implement the redevelopment programme. In the general rule of SRA the slum dwellers who can prove their residency in that location since 1995 are rehabilitated in the concrete buildings to a self contained apartment of 225 square feet. Some of the previous SRA buildings in Mumbai is already showing disastrous result. Under this scheme high rise buildings house the slum dwellers. But often the slum dwellers cannot pay for the maintenance of the buildings. So gradually basic amenities such as electricity, water and lift stop functioning. People attempt to re-start their earlier vocations. So 'illegal' sweat shops of leather works, embroidery, sewing, carpentry etc. start in the small multi-storied dwelling without the basic amenities. Soon the vertical buildings turn into something worse than the horizontal slums. Only that this time it remains concealed within the building structures and does not become visible in general public place. Other than concealing the issue from public eyes this scheme of rehabilitating the slum dwellers achieve very little. But on the other hand it releases vast amount of land for the real estate lobby. This issue gets far more complicated in the case of Dharavi as it is not a conventional slum of fringe people. Dharavi is a self contained settlement with many mini industries, traditional houses, well orchestrated neighbourhood and an intricately evolved urban ecology. Attempt to impose the general slum development scheme on Dharavi can be disastrous.
…
Q: But they promised you give you alternative space.
-If the government gives then it is well and good. We have so much land…
- They will take away ours (land) and in exchange give us next to nothing.
- they say we will not give you as much space as you have now. Their plots are small little ones. So why should we vacate? Why should we give them our land? You have seen around here - how much property we have. Only if they compensate for it then we will agree. They say 'we will give only a room'. What will happen in one room? Can any pottery work be done in one room? You need lot of space for pottery… this is our land. It is not theirs that we would give it away to them…. This our father's father's land – not the govt.'s father's.
225 square feet
amenities
apartment
builders
citizenship
cleansing drive
community
compensation
construction
dharavi
displacement
electricity
facility
female wage earners
fringe people
government
homogenized
housing
industry
kumbharwada
land rights
lift
livelihood
maintenance bill
metropolitan region
multi-layered design
mumbai
neighbourhood
policy
pottery
proof of residence
public space
real estate lobby
redevelopment
rehabilitation
relocation
scheme
settlement
slum dwellers
slum redevelopment authority
space
split level
sra
sweat shop
urban artisans
urban ecology
water
work space
workshop
In a corner of the room is an opening on the ceiling. Sunlight falls in though the opening. One woman passes some pots - which were being polished through the afternoon - up through the opening and somebody else, from the roof top (out of camera frame), catches them and carries them to the terrace for sun drying.
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
Q: Could we go upstair to shoot?
- Noooo you can't. You will fall and the hut will come down too.
(in Gujarati)
Q: No, please tell us which song do you like?
- in Gujarati, gujarati…
-Who me? I don't know any song. I have never seen a film. How would I know any song? My husband has never taken me to cinema. Those women there – they go to see films.
- Whole day we work. How will we play garba (community dance on occasion of navratri) in the night? You need to have some strength left in you.
afternoon
ceiling
chores
cinema
clay pots
dance
dharavi
drudgery
entertainment
films
garba
gujarati
kumbharwada
multi-functional
multi-layered space
mumbai
navratri
pottery
roof top
song
split level architecture
sunlight
terrace
trap door
work
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
The footage is a glimpse into the multilayered housing architecture and the multi-fuctionality of it. A pair of feet dangle from the ceiling and a head pops up through the floor. No space is single level as no room is flat.
Q: How the water remain so cold in earthen pots?
- because it is made of mud. Earthen pots make it cool.
Q: Why do you all take pallv on your head? (Why do you cover your head?)
-what do you mean? It is our custom. The in-laws are around, the elders are there too… that is why. Now we don't put on the veil (ghughat). Earlier we used put on veil too. Whole day we had to stay in veils.
(talk among themselves about work in Gujarati)
afternoon
ceiling
community
custom
daughter-in-law
dharavi
earthen pots
female wage earners
ghunghat
housing
in-laws
kumbharwada
livelihood
multi-functional
multi-layered space
mumbai
pallv
redevelopment
roof top
split level architecture
sunlight
terrace
tradition
trap door
urban artisans
veil
water
Outdoor. Low angle wide shot of a terrace with asbestos roof. The smoke of the kiln has started blowing through the Kumbharwada. Shot of a round kiln. There are about 400 kilns in kumbharwad and 150 in wadi 1 alone. Usually the kilns are rectangular. This is one of the only two kilns in kumbharwada which are round. Round kilns are of superior architecture and more efficient. The two round kilns belong to Ghanshodbhai Tank. (for more information on him please see the event 'Dharavi redevelopment_Cityscape & Citizenship' in this site). The kilns are generally lit in the evening. The usual routine is like this: loading on the kiln in the afternoon, lighting it in the evening, the fire burns for 12 hours, the kiln cools down in the morning and unloading happens through the afternoon and evening. The cycle starts again in the next morning. A popular abuse in Kumbharwada is 'so and so is so money minded that he lights his kiln everyday or he lights it even in daytime'.
Ghanshodbhai Tank
Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai
architecture
baking
bhatti
community
courtyard
design
dharavi
female wage earners
fire
ghanshorebhai tank
health hazard
housing
kumbharwada
livelihood
mumbai
pottery
public heath
rectangular kiln
redevelopment
round kiln
routine
smoke
urban artisans
work cycle
Dharavi
Kumbharwada sector 1
Mumbai
Shot of the narrow inner lanes in Kumbharwada. Urban researchers with their cameras roam around. Wide shot of the courtyard. Trays of small diyas (oil lamps), the cheapest commodity in Kumbharwada, being sun dried. The round kiln (bhatti) burns in the background. Wage labourers, urban researchers, women artisans occupy the same space. An old woman watches them with passive curiosity.
architecture
baking
bhatti
camera
courtyard
dharavi
diya
documentation
fire
kumbharwada
living quarter
mumbai
pottery
round kiln
space
space management
urban researchers
wage labourers
women workers
work space
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