MISCELLANEOUS OCCUPATIONS

LAUNDRIES

This occupation including all types of cleaning, dyeing, bleaching and dry cleaning provided employment to 1,521 persons as per 1961 Census. The occupation has changed with the passage of time. The laundering services in the past were rendered by dhobis who used to collect clothes, wash and iron them and deliver the clothes back to their customers. Nowadays, new shops have been opened by the persons in the business. Laundries are seen in almost all the towns. The customers themselves go to the shop, give the clothes for washing or ironing as the case may be and collect the same on a specified date. Collecting the clothes from the customers as also delivering them, is also not infrequent. The dhobis, a sub-caste of the Hindus, were in former times balutedars i.e. village servants and accepted grains towards payments for the services rendered by them. However the system is now not in vogue as in the past. In the case of dhobis all the members of a family are found working. Generally the work of collecting the clothes is done by the male members of the family, while washing of clothes is done by the women and drying of clothes is entrusted to the children. Ironing and delivery of clothes is also done by the male members. Generally a dhobi is paid per hundred clothes washed and ironed. Laundries are mostly seen in the urban areas. In case of laundries the customers themselves go to deliver and collect clothes. Some of these laundries also undertake dry cleaning, darning, etc. A few of them only undertake ironing of clothes. In the case of a big unit in the district, situated at the district headquarters, the capital investment was found to be about Rs. 5,000. It was mainly locked up in dry cleaning machine, irons, cup-boards for keeping clothes, table for ironing and the business counter. It provided employment to five persons who were from the family of the owner. The main items of expenditure for this unit were rent which accounted for about Rs. 60 per month and electricity charges which came to about Rs. 20 per month. The net monthly earnings of a unit were between Rs. 350 and Rs. 500.

In the case of medium units the capital investment was placed at between Rs. 700 and Rs. 1,000. The same amounted to between Rs. 400 and Rs. 650 in case of small units. A medium sized unit provided employment to about four persons, while two were found to be engaged in small units. No salaried persons were employed by any unit.

The net income of a medium unit was placed at about Rs. 250 and that of a small unit at about Rs. 175 per month.

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