MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

TAILORING

Tailoring shops have penetrated deep into urban as well as rural economy of the district. The tailor has been since long an indispensable unit to the society and has established himself in all parts of the district. Yet, there are a few small villages in the district where the tailor has not crept in but is, all the same, accessible to the villagers within a radius of a mile or two. The distribution of tailors in the district thus appears to be fairly satisfactory. But a conservative attitude to the profession, an apathetic mind to accept renovated techniques of stitching, out-fitting, etc., and a lack of business perspective have all combined to obscure the path of his progress during the past many decades in the district. The profession is characterised by its traditional nature, as most of those who have taken it up are Hindus belonging to the Shimpi community. A few tailors arc found to add a small income by retailing a few articles kept in a small depot preferably attached to the tailoring shop. A few others derive a small income from an agricultural holding measuring a few gunthas or so. Yet, a majority have none of these to supplement their income and are compelled to lean exclusively on their earn-ings from the profession. The unskilled tailor is a peculiar category to be found commonly at small villages in the district. He knows no stiching beyond a waist-coat and a bodice and makes a precarious living. The medium-skilled tailor is seen to centre round bigger villages and to undertake stitching of shirts, pants, underwears and pyjamas among other articles. The skilled tailor whose entity is restricted to big towns appears to be adept in the art of tailoring and seems to have specialised in stitching clothes of males, females and children. Yet, there exists at any place- may be a village or a town-a combination of tailors possessed with variegated skills of stitching.

The occupation has been an important avenue of employment. The following figures give the number of persons engaged in the occupation:−

*No occupational statistics are avilable for these years.

^IThis figure does not cover the district fully. It excludes employment in the Janjira State, the same being not obtainable in the Census of 1921.

At the time of our survey, the establishments at Alibag and Mahad towns numbered 38 and 25, respectively, and were distributed as under:−

Our sample survey was confined to most of the important towns in the district, wherein detailed information was collected with respect to raw-materials, tools and equipment, capital requirements, inter se. The results of our findings follow in subsequent pages.

Accessories.

Accessories available locally are composed of a few articles such as thread, buttons, canvas-cloth and needles. The amount spent on accessories together with establishment charges varies in accordance with their turnover, and the same, in the case of those covered by the survey, varied from Rs. 5 to Rs. 50 per month.

Tools and Equipment.

The tailor is generally established in a small tenement or a varandah of a house, as the case may be, with a sewing machine, a pair of scissors and a measure tape. It is also not uncommon to find, though in a few cases, more than one machine but usually two, occupied by an equal number of tailors working at the same place side by side but independently. Of the tools and equip-ment, a sewing machine involves the bulk of the expenditure as it costs from Rs. 250 to Rs. 400. The establishments covered by the survey spent on tools and equipment an amount ranging from a few hundreds to a thousand rupees. The tailors, who could ill-afford to buy a new machine purchased a second hand machine or used it on a rental basis. A few benches arranged perpendicularly to each other, a chair usually worn-out and dilapidated and a mat or two to serve a flooring provide the seating arrangement to customers. The tailor works all alone and, in most cases, without the help of paid assistants and, even where he draws on this help, the latter number usually not exceeding one or two. In a village, he has to perform an additional duty of having to attend to a few selected houses to collect orders, take measures, receive cloth and finally, to deliver stitched articles. In a town, however, as customers visit the shop, the pressure outside the shop is, though not done with, minimised to a great extent. But this covers only a preliminary part of the work, whether done at the shop or outside, and the main piece of work consists in cutting the cloth, an operation that demands utmost skill on the part of the tailor, and stitching the articles. The tailor resumes his work in the morning and continues it till late in the evening, leaving a few hours of rest in the afternoon. Thus, his total attendance at the shop may amount to about ten hours but the net working hours would not exceed six a day. Where paid servants are engaged by the tailor, they are usually given stitching work and the work of cutting the cloth is usually undertaken personally by the owner, as on it depends the quality of stitching as a whole. The remuneration payable to the paid employees is generally fixed on a contract or a piece-rate basis and, in a few instances, on a salary-basis. But wages per paid labourer average about Rs. 45 per month, in either way. Except the brisk season, when the tailor occupies the sewing machine all the day and even during late hours at night, he is for the most part of the year seen pass his time without adequate work.

Turnover.

Shirts, pants, trousers, coats, waist-coats, blouses and bodices make the usual items of stitching. It is common knowledge that all tailors cannot stitch with equal efficiency. Nevertheless, the average standard of stitching does not appear to be far from satisfactory, probably because the tailors have hardly acquired a specialised training in tailoring, and whatever skill they may be having has come to them through practical experience. Thus the persons intending to take up the profession serve apprentice-ship under a tailor for a year or two and a limited tailoring skill thus passes from one generation to another. In small villages in the district, tailoring has been more or less a neglected profession and probably associated with a poor living. The average stitching charges in the district arc given below:−

The tailor's output of work depends upon the situation of his shop, whether in a village or in a town, whether in a central place or otherwise or on the work that may be available at the place as also on his capacity to deliver the goods to the satisfaction of his clientele. Whereas in a village, the daily output of work amounts to worth a rupee or two, subject to the maximum of five rupees, the same is found to range from five to fifteen rupees, in a town. But in rare cases, it extends up to twenty-five rupees. The following table shows the output of work per month at a few places in the district:−

Income and Expenditure.

Rent is perhaps as important an accessory in the expenditure pattern of the tailoring establishments. In a small village, where the tailor opens up a shop by allowing it to occupy a part of his residence which may be a small tenement or a corridor, the establishment entails no expenditure on rent and, even where it is paid, the same works out to a rupee or two and, in rare cases, up to five rupees per month. In a town, however, it forms quite a significant item of expenditure as the amount spent on rent ranges from five to twenty-five rupees usually but, where the location of the place is decent and favours business, it steps up to sixty rupees per month. Another but perhaps equally important item of expenditure is provided by repairs to and renewals of sewing machines. After the first few years of full utility, sewing machines demand a little repairing here and there which may mean a small disbursement of a recurring nature and, as years grow, machines or parts thereof have to be substituted or renewed which may mean a heavy burden of expenditure in that particular year on the tailor. Thus, leaving a small margin for accessories, rent, repairs, renewals, etc., the tailor earns a net income of from Rs. 100 to Rs. 400 per month, but usually very few tailors earn a net income of over Rs. 200 per month. In fact, in a village his earnings average from Rs. 40 to Rs. 250 per month but, in most cases, the earnings do not go beyond Rs. 150 per month.

It is true that the tailor is one of the indispensable components of the society. Yet, not a few souls are found to complain of the profession as one not warranting good dividends, naturally because by taking it up they have sunk into a sad economic plight. The picture of a decent, well-equipped tailoring firm managed by expert tailors in a most up-to-date manner so rendered by a thorough application of the fundamental principles of business is much of an uncommon thing in the district. The tailor in the district has passed all these years without contributing towards the elevation of his economic status. A slight increase, brought about by enhanced stitching rates in his income is merely warded off by a disproportionate rise in cost of living. No surprise, therefore, that this profession should be associated with a monotonous pursuit and stamped as one of an unremunerative character. Although due to a low purchasing power of the clientele, the profession does not seem to better the status-quo in villages, it leaves ample scope for earning good dividends to the tailor, provided he goes about it in a scientific manner.

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