Umesh Solanki

Nirzari Pandit

Translator

PARI Desk

Editor

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“The train stops only for five minutes, and we board amidst a lot of
rush and crowding. Sometimes the train starts moving, and we have to leave
behind some bundles on the platform.” Saranga Rajbhoi is a rope maker, and the
bundles she is forced to leave behind are leftover fibres from textile
factories that women like her make into ropes they sell. The ropes are used to
tie cows and buffaloes, cargo on trucks and tractors, and even to hang clothes
to dry.

“Hamara khaandani hai [Ours
is a family business],” says Santra Rajbhoi. Seated in an open space near her
home in a municipal housing block in Vatva, Ahmedabad, she is busy untangling
knots from a heap of synthetic fibre.

Saranga and Santra belong to the Rajbhoi nomadic community in Gujarat.
They travel from Ahmedabad to Surat buying up waste fibres from textile mills
along the way, which they then turn into ropes. It’s a job that makes them
leave home around eleven at night and return only at seven in the evening the
next day. Their young children are left behind in the care of relatives and
neighbours.

The trains they catch often reach their destination at one or two in
the morning, so the women rope makers sleep on the railway platforms for which
they are often harassed. “We are taken to the police station for two-three
hours and questioned about where we come from. The policemen catch hold of poor
people,” says Karuna. “If they feel like detaining us, they do.”

Karuna, Santra and Saranga are all neighbours in
the Char Maliya municipal housing located in Vatva. They say their homes lack
basic amenities like regular water supply and sewage lines. Electricity
connections came only after a long fight.

They belong to the Rajbhoi community in which traditional occupations for women include making ropes whereas men
work as ear-wax cleaners. Their community has been struggling for recognition and
access to state benefits and a better standard of living. The Rajbhois are a
nomadic tribe, but “our caste is not listed with the Nigam [Gujarat Nomadic and
Denotified Tribes Development Corporation],” says Rajesh Rajbhoi, the mukhiya or head of the community.
Accessing work opportunities and other schemes available for nomadic
communities is not a straightforward process as, “we are listed there as
‘Bhoiraj’ instead of ‘Rajbhoi’ and that becomes a problem when it comes to
government work.”

Neither Rajbhoi nor Bhoiraj figure in the list
of 28 Nomadic Tribes and 12 Denotifed Tribes that appear on the Gujarat
government’s<a href="https://sje.gujarat.gov.in/ddcw/List-of-Castes?lang=english"> </a><a href="https://sje.gujarat.gov.in/ddcw/List-of-Castes?lang=english">website</a>.  ‘Bhoi’
of Gujarat are listed in the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/draft-list-of-denotified-tribes-nomadic-tribes-and-semi-nomadic-tribes-of-india/">Draft list of Denotified
Tribes, Nomadic Tribes and Semi-Nomadic Tribes of India</a> (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment).
In Gujarat, Bhoiraj are listed under Other Backward Classes. “People from our
community are also called Salat-Ghera outside of Gujarat and are engaged in
making mill-stones and grindstones,” says Rajesh. The Salat-Ghera are also a nomadic
tribe and listed as such on the website.

Sourcing the fibre required to make ropes takes these women across
textile factories in Surat. “Vatva to Maninagar and Maninagar to Kim. We buy the [raw]
material at twenty-five rupees per kilo,&quot; says Saranga Rajbhoi, chewing a
betel leaf. Her hands keep working on the fibres.

The distance from Maninagar in Ahmedabad to Kim in Surat is almost 230 kilometres. They
have no other choice but to travel by train; fares are high, but a laughing
Saranga, wiping the betel juice running down her chin, says, “We don’t buy
tickets.” From Kim railway station the women travel by rickshaw to textile
factories in the area.

“Any damaged material is kept aside. The workers
sell it to us or to the junk dealers, who in turn sell it to us,” says 47-year-old Gita Rajbhoi. But not just any fibre will do, explains Karuna: “Cotton is
of no use to us. We can only use resam [synthetic
silk], and the factories working with it are only in Kim.”

Often the raw material (fibre) is knotted together, says Gita and
costs less. The price varies between Rs. 15 to 27 a kilo. White fibre used in
sofas, bedding and pillows is expensive – Rs. 40 a kilo.

“One woman can bring 100 kilos. She might bring 25 or sometimes even
10 kilos,” says Santra. But there is no guarantee that they might get that much
– there are always too many people looking to buy and not enough fibre to go
around.

Transporting the material from Kim to Ahmedabad requires them to “go
around [to multiple factories] in Kim to buy the goods and bring it to the
station,” explains Saranga.

At the station, their large bundles attract the attention of the
railway staff.  “If they catch us, they
sometimes let us go when we explain that we are poor. If some headstrong
officer turns up, we have to pay 100-200 rupees,” adds Karuna Rajbhoi. “Every
time we purchase material worth a thousand rupees, we end up spending three
hundred [on travel].” Whether or not they are able to get the required
material, an expense of Rs. 300 is inevitable.

A finished rope of 30 arms’ length is sold for Rs. 80 and a rope of 50
arms’ length for Rs. 100. 

The women carry 40-50 ropes with them. Sometimes
they manage to sell all and sometimes only about 20 in small towns and cities
like Mahemdabad, Anand, Limbachi, Tarapur, Kathlal, Kheda, Govindpura, Matar,
Changa, Palla, Gomtipur and many other places.

“We work hard to make the ropes and spend money to go and sell them in
the villages of Nadiad and Kheda, only to be bargained down from 100 to 50-60
rupees,” says Saranga. And then the travel and fines also eat into their
earnings.

Making ropes is hard and exhausting work that they do in between
household chores. “Jab nal aata hai tab
uth jaate hain. [When water comes in the taps, we get up],” says Aruna
Rajbhoi.

As their homes are too small to accommodate the work, the women work
in the open with no protection from the sun. “We work from seven to noon, and
from two to five-thirty in the afternoon,” she adds. “We make more ropes in the
summer as the days are longer – about 20-25 in a day. But only 10-15 in the winter,”
adds Rupa.

A small hand wheel and a large fixed spinning wheel are two important
tools of their trade.

One woman spins the wheel while another holds
the strands, preventing them from sticking together. Yet another woman manages
the ends of the rope. Since three or four people are needed at a time, family
members often work together. “As we keep spinning the wheel, fibre gets spun
into yarn. Three separate strands are formed and get twisted together to form a
rope,” says Sarvila Rajbhoi, adding that a rope of 15-20 feet takes 30-45
minutes. In a day, a group can make 8-10 ropes, sometimes they even make
twenty. On order, they even make ropes 50-100 feet in length.

The Bhoi community in the state are largely in the Saurashtra region.
According to Bhagvadgomandal, an encyclopaedic Gujarati dictionary published in
the 1940s, Bhois are &quot;a backward Shudra community&quot; once engaged in tanning
leather. But opposition to animal slaughter from the dominant Jain community forced
many of them to agriculture and other labour work. Bhois who turned to
different occupations came to be known by different names. Rajbhois could have
been palanquin bearers.

The women’s enterprise and hard work is brushed off by male members of
the community, including Bhanu Rajbhoi. An ear cleaner by trade he says of the
money the women earn: “It doesn’t help much. It just helps a little with their
household expenses.” After all, caste-specific traditionally inherited
occupations only beget “thoda bahot ghar
ka kharch.”

But to Gita Rajbhoi, this is still better than
trying to find a salaried job. It is clear when she says, “dasvin ke baad barvin, uske baad college, tab jaake naukri milti hai.
Isse achha apna dhanda sambhalo! [One has to pass Class 10, Class 12 and
later college. Only then does one get a job. Better to manage your own
business!]”.

The reporter would like to thank Aatish Indrekar
Chhara.

The tangled skeins of Rajbhoi rope makers

رسی بنانے والی راج بھوئی کمیونٹی کی الجھی ہوئی دنیا

చిక్కుబడిన రాజ్‌భోయ్ తాళ్ళ తయారీదారుల జీవితాలు

கயிறு செய்பவர்களின் வாழ்க்கை முடிச்சுகள்

ਰਾਜਭੋਈ ਰੱਸੀ ਬਣਾਉਣ ਵਾਲ਼ਿਆਂ ਦੀ ਆਪਣੀ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ ਉਲਝਦੀ ਹੋਈ

ରାଜଭୋଇ ରଶି ନିର୍ମାତାଙ୍କ ଅଡୁଆ ଗଣ୍ଠି

രാജ്ഭോയ്: കയർ നിർമ്മാതാക്കളുടെ കെട്ടുപിണഞ്ഞ ജീവിതങ്ങൾ

ರಾಜಭೋಯಿ ಸಮುದಾಯದ ಹಗ್ಗ ತಯಾರಕರ ಬದುಕಿನ ಕಗ್ಗಂಟು

राजभोई समुदाय की रस्सी-निर्माताओं की उलझी हुई दुनिया

राजभोई समाज: रस्सी बरत, संटाय जिनगी

रसड़ी आउर मोटरी में अझुराइल जिनगी

রজ্জুতেই সম্ভ্রম: রাজভোই শ্রমজীবী নারীদের কথা

ৰেচমী আঁহ-নিৰ্ভৰ শ্ৰমজীৱী মহিলাৰ জীৱন

રાજભોઈ સમુદાયની મહિલાઓનાં ગૂંચવાયેલાં જીવન

Vatva, Ahmedabad

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The tangled skeins of Rajbhoi rope makers

Discarded textile fibres are turned into ropes of all sizes by women from this nomadic community. They travel to different parts of Gujarat buying up waste fibres, journeying across the state in trains at night

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