MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

LAUNDERING

Laundries do not exist at all places in the district and their location is restricted to towns. In a number of places, however, where these establishments are absent, these services are rendered by dhobis most of whom belong to the Hindu Parit community. Yet, there are a number of villages where similar services do not obtain nor are they considered necessary by their inhabitants. The dhobis secure work directly from customers by moving from house to house or from laundries, as the case may be. In the former, articles are delivered back, washed and ironed, to the customers and, in the latter, only washed articles are delivered to laundries. Thus, both collection and delivery of articles appear to be the concern of the dhobis who have, in most parts, of the district, a hard deal especially because they have to traverse in scorching heat a distance sometimes extending up to five miles in search of water storage. In the important towns of the district, a few shops or houses which undertake to accept articles for ironing offer a mild competition to laundry business. The dhobis, laundries and those engaged exclusively in ironing articles are the three components serving the clientele in their own way. Of these, the dhobis enter the profession but, while doing so, are motivated by a traditional instinct, and are as a class poor, honest and painstaking and on them depends the efficiency or otherwise of these services. In the post-war years, laundry services have assumed significance as an occupation both from the point of view of employment and number of establishments. The occupation reveals a novel combination of old and new customs and practices. On the one hand, in an establishment, we find hardly a place for a table or two meant exclusively for carrying on ironing work, while on the other hand, we come across well-equipped and modernised establishments specialising in almost all the branches of the occupation. The following table gives employment provided by the occupation during the last sixty years:—

*The figures of occupational distribution of population are not obtainable in the Census of 1901.

†The figure does not cover the district fully. It is exclusive of the employment n the Janjira State, the same being not obtainable in the Census of 1921.

A sample survey was undertaken in most of the towns each with a population of more than 5,000 inhabitants and covered Alibag, Pen, Panvel, Mahad and Karjat among others. At the time of our survey the number of establishments amounted to 11 at Alibag and 7 at Mahad, as shown below:—

The establishments selected for the purpose of survey were truly representative of the occupation as a whole as they belonged to the various sizes—large, medium and small. As revealed by the survey, most of those engaged in the pursuit in towns follow it as a principal means of livelihood, while in rural areas, the occupation served, not in a few cases, as a subsidiary means of livelihood.

Accessories.

In the accessories used in the washing and cleaning of clothes can be included soap, washing soda, bleaching powder, starch, indigo and tinopal for the purpose of washing, and charcoal and firewood as fuel, which are all available locally. Laundries and other establishments engaged exclusively in ironing do not require anything beyond charcoal and firewood. The extent of consumption of raw materials is decided by the turnover of these establishments. Nevertheless, in its smallest type, a laundry spends from Rs. 20 to Rs. 60 per month, but a similar expenditure in an average establishment obtains at round about a hundred rupees, although the same doubles itself with the growth in size or nature of the unit—ordinary or otherwise, as the case may be.

Tools and Equipment.

The equipment of the establishment depends upon the status of the units; for, in its smallest type which may be more or less a family concern, there is hardly any equipment beyond a rack or a table. An average unit possesses petty furniture, consisting of a chair and a table both of an ordinary quality besides a shelf for articles" both collected and ready for delivery. Every laundry has irons, their number depending upon the extent of its turnover. Yet, an average unit has two irons each worth about Rs. 75. Brass irons each costing about a hundred rupees are also found in laundries, although their use appears to be restricted only to a few units, more usually in power laundries. A medium quality iron lasts for a dozen years. A few more items such as a trough, bucket, etc., add to the equipment of a laundry. Our sample Survey revealed that tools and equipment cost a small unit in the neighbourhood of Rs. 500 and a medium unit from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 4,000. Most of those belonging to the most modern category are power laundries. It was also observed that, in a few power laundries, machine was purchased on an instalment basis, since they could ill-afford to ,buy it in lump sum.

Capital.

The capital investment in the laundry business consists of tools and equipment. Naturally, it is, uniform, subject of course to wide fluctuations in the establishments of the district. Furthermore, in the initial stage, the business can be run without much capital and a small amount can serve as a working capital which may be just enough to buy accessories. Similarly, the turnover is effected on cash basis and relieves the laundries of locking up a heavy amount as working capital. Thus, owing to the ease of finance, a number of persons have come forward to open up laundries and to make a living on it in the past few years. In a majority of the establishments the owners raise capital out of their own funds without resorting to borrowings. It appeared thus, that the problem of indebtedness has not so far embraced the incumbents of the profession, apart from a few cases here and there.

The peculiarity of the occupation lies in the fact that the entire family serves as a working unit. The profession provides a truly co-operative activity to almost all the members of the family in one way or the other. The dhobis have no fixed hours of work, but they usually resume work a few hours in the morning and in the evening, though they are busy practically throughout the day. In a laundry, however, the employer usually fixes definite hours of work in the morning and an equal number of hours in the evening. Yet, the rush of work in the brisk season, which registers itself in festivals and similar other occasions, demands a laundry to work overtime or on holidays. As the Shops and Establishments Act does not necessarily apply to laundries at all places in the district, the labour at. many laundries hardly reaps the benefit of having to work overtime. The dhobis are paid a piece fate which depends on the number of articles accepted for washing and obtains in a wide fluctuation from place to place. Naturally, when they work independently in a direct link with the customers, their earnings are higher than when they may be hired by laundries. The persons working in a laundry are paid at a rate which ranges from Rs. 1-8-0 to Rs. 3 per day. All the same, the labour is not assured of stability, although by dint of practical experience, it can gain ground in securing employment elsewhere in similar establishments. A small unit carries on with a person or two—may be an owner and a member of his family or a relative. A medium unit employs a few persons, on a salary basis, whereas in a big laundry with modernised equipment, a number of persons, usually four or five, are found to work at its counters.

Turnover.

Laundry services comprise washing and ironing of articles such as clothes, bed sheets, etc., and, provide for dry cleaning, too, of woollen articles. Most of the laundries, particularly in big towns of the district provide for a special wash at charges usually at double the rates for an ordinary wash.

Income and Expenditure.

Our sample survey revealed that the gross turnover of a small laundry situated in a village averaged from Rs. 100 to Rs. 175 per month and, after meeting a total expenditure amounting to Rs. 40, earned a net margin of not less than Rs. 60 but generally not exceeding Rs. 100 per month. A medium unit earned gross proceeds to the tune of from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month and, after meeting the routine disbursements averaging about Rs. 75, derived a net margin varying from Rs. 125 to a little more than Rs. 200 per month. A large unit, of which category there are few in the district, has a monthly turnover ranging from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 and, after paying off establishment and other charges of the order of from Rs. 150 to Rs. 200, earns a net income which varied between Rs. 350 and Rs. 800 per month.

It is common knowledge that the dhobi has served the society for long and earned an age-old recognition though not a rank in it. He has been attending to washing and cleaning of clothes for years. Yet, the frame-work of his occupation has undergone a vast change. In the dynamic society, with the habits of its members showing a gradual but positive fluctuation, the independent dhobi has more or less vanished except in the remotest parts of the district. Thus, with the inception of a laundry, customers began to take a fancy for it and the dhobi, in consequence, had to depend on a laundry for procuring work. Although the dhobi has not been and cannot be driven away from his position in the society, there is little doubt that he has lost, in a large measure, direct contact with the customers. Not that this has reduced the scope of his activity but surely enough has this created an intermediary in the form of a laundry. Probably, regularity of collection and delivery of articles and general decency were the special factors that seemed to drag the customers to it. The occupation to-day appears to be better placed than what it was in the past. Its development can be traced to the formation of better habits among the people. In a village, where it was difficult to come across a person with spotlessly clean and ironed clothes, we find to-day a person clad in lily-white and well-creased uniform. This probably accounts for the intrusion this occupation has made even in the remotest parts of the district. Yet, it is difficult to say that washermen as a class have, in all these years, succeeded in elevating their economic position. On the other hand, the dhobi is generally found to live from hand to mouth, although he represents an indispensable link in the washing and cleaning services. But those who have established a laundry and regularised the activity in a systematic manner, enjoy a moderate subsistence and very few indeed usually to be found in the important towns and villages in the district have settled down well in the occupation. Yet, it inherits a number of shortcomings which emerge from the fact that it has so far attracted the uneducated class of the society.

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