By TwoCircles.net,
Muhammad Raees of Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh spends night on Mumbai pavement. Abdul Jabbar of Godda in Jharkhand earns Rs 600 a month in Delhi. Aziz Ahmad in Patna ‘digs the well everyday to drink water.’ Hundreds of miles away from each other, the common bond they share is: they are illiterate; poor; and Muslims. And to make their ends meet they are roadside vendors.
According to the National Sample Survey 55th Round report, 51% of Muslim men are self-employed in unorganized sector. A majority of them have their shops on wheels or on pavements in cities. Bhendi Bazar, Mahim and Crawford Market in Mumbai have hundreds of Muslim roadside vendors. So have Jama Masjid area, Chandni Chowk and Jamia Nagar in Delhi and Station Road and Sabzi Bagh area in Patna. In this three-part series TwoCircles.net talks to Muslim vendors in Mumbai, Delhi and Patna.
Part I: Mumbai Muslim vendors
By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai is rightly said a combination of ‘paradoxes.’ Along with the richest persons of the world the city has lakhs of poverty-stricken people; in the neighborhood of the castle-like buildings there are rows and rows of slums and tent-like dwellings. If many are those who blow thousands of rupees in a night in a 5-star hotel, many more are those who have to struggle hard for each rupee. Roadside vendors are from the latter class of people who live a hard life. As about one-fourth of Mumbai population is Muslims, there are hundreds of Muslim vendors across the city.
To know how they are living, how much they earn and if they are able to educate their children TwoCircles.net visited Mumbai’s crowded Crawford Market – the area overwhelmed by Muslim vendors.
Muhammad Raees selling cutlery
He is Muhammad Raees Shaikh. Raees, 35, left his village of Pipari in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh 10 years ago. Since then he has been selling cutlery on his hand-pulled cart on the pavements of Mumbai.
Since he wants to save as much money as possible, he has no proper residence in Mumbai. He spends his night on the pavements of Mumbai but on food and other necessities he has to spend 100-150 rupees per day. Add to it the monthly amount bound to be given to the police and Municipality.
The monthly saving of nearly 1500 rupees is meager to lead a happy life for his nine member family in Sultanpur. Father of six children Raees doesn’t know how he will be able to educate his sons and daughters.
Asked how much he is able to save daily, he told TwoCircles.net, ‘The daily saving depends on selling. Sometimes I do earn 200 rupees but there are the days when it is difficult to earn even 50 rupees.
The poor Raees becomes busy in his work early in the morning at 8 after taking bath and visiting Dargah and remains under the open sky till mid-night.
His young children and aged father are able to see him only twice throughout the year unless any urgent need touches him.
Muhammad Aslam, the fruit vendor
Similar is the story of Muhammad Aslam. The 20-25 year earning in Mumbai as a fruit vendor did not avail Muhammad Aslam very much. Father of four children, Aslam hardly earns 2,000 rupees a month.
Besides spending considerable money on his food in hotels, he has to pay much amount to the police and the municipality also.
He spends his whole day on the pavement selling fruits and at night he sleeps wherever he finds any place. ‘I spend my night on the footpath. There is no specific place; wherever I find a suitable place I lie down,’ Aslam told TCN. ‘I have four children; two boys and two girls. All of them by the grace of Allah are studying in different schools.
For the comfort of family residing in Lakshmipur village of Badaun district in UP Aslam Shaikh leaves no stone unturned in Mumbai.
Akbar Ali selling old garments
Sixty-year old Akbar Ali with beard is sitting on the pavement of Carnac Bridge Road, Near Crawford Market, selling one-time used garments. He comes here only on Sundays.
‘I purchase the garments from Chindi Gali of Chor Bazar and sell them at many places particularly at Byculla. Only on Sundays I come here,’ said Akbar Ali who is originally from Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. Father of five children Akbar Ali has been in Mumbai for 20 years.
The family members of Akbar are in Gonda. Among his five children – two sons and three daughters – only one is of school going age.
Though his daily profit of 20-50 rupees is not enough for his family to meet their expenses, the cooperation of his elder son, a tailor, has enabled him to lead a better life in Mumbai. He has rented a dwelling in Kamatipura. He has to pay as rent at least 650 rupees out of his monthly income of moderate 2000 rupees.