Shaded from the sharp afternoon sun, the rows upon rows of houses covered with thick black soot in Kumbharwada, Mumbai’s ‘pottery village’ on the outskirts of Dharavi are always bustling with activity. True to its name, Kumbharwada, has meant home, hearth, and craft to these firers of clay, imbued with a strong cultural identity and a spirit of community, but with the passage of time, the wheel is turning. The younger generation is losing interest in the “traditional family business”.
Faced with stiff competition from the Chinese market and declining business, the residents are uncertain about the future of Kumbharwada. Today, most potters aspire for better education, a comfortable lifestyle and white-collared jobs for their children. While the majority of the youngsters are following in the footsteps of their neighbours to join the merchant navy, a few in the community are studying to become IT professionals and MBAs.
Thirty-nine-year-old Dilip Rathod, who runs Shree Potteries said, his family would have faced a financial crisis had he not joined the merchant navy. “My grandfather Narayanji Rathod started the business almost eight to nine decades ago, my father Mithjibhai Rathod took it ahead by setting up a shop. However, neither do we get any subsidies from the government nor any scheme to boost our business in the market. I joined the merchant navy, which not only gave me financial stability but also left me free to look after my business when I come home on break for a few months. In my absence, my wife and the other women in our household look after the business.”
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Khadi & Village Industries Board (MSKVIB), which has schemes to revive home-based businesses and crafts, claims it can only help crafts and home-based businesses in rural areas. A senior official from the MSKVIB said, “Though Kumbharwada is a home-based business, it is located in an urban setup and hence they do not come under the Village Industries Board. They have a genuine issue and it can only be resolved through the cluster development scheme.”
Life in Kumbharwada is challenging first and foremost, for lack of space. Residents live in 20sq ft hovels — spaces that would be more amenable to kilns, with ventilation standards harking back to the Dark Ages. Basic amenities like street drainage are absent. There is incessant thick smoke from the kilns, dicey community toilets and limited sources of clean drinking water.
Housing the largest and oldest community of potters, Kumbharwada produces the majority of earthen pots and diyas (earthen lamps) for Mumbai. In India, earthen pottery still has a special place in the hearts of the people. Yet in Kumbharwada, spread across 13 acres of prime land in Dharavi, of the 2,000 families that originally migrated here, only 200 continued their pottery manufacturing and selling business. The rest have moved on to other sources of livelihood, informs Ranchhodbhai Tank, one of the community heads.
“We have seen hardships and have lived our lives burning the midnight oil so that we could give our children a good life. However, the hardships just do not seem to end. Our kids want more out of life than to just be roaming around the soot-stained walls of Kumbharwada. Sadly, only 200 families are now actually in the pottery business,” says Tank, 60.
Come election time and local politicians are afoot, making stump speeches, promising smoke-free electric furnaces and kilns, according to Tank and other potters. But these are hollow promises, made by men with feet of clay, as the residents have learnt over the decades.
The walls of their homes are perpetually sheathed with the thick soot emanating from the kilns every day. “Hardly one or two people in the locality own an electric kiln. The rest in Kumbharwada use the traditional kiln. We don’t get our houses painted on the outside anymore. What’s the point? They get coated with soot the very next day,” says Tank.
“I don’t want to carry on the pottery business. Not necessary that if my father is a potter I too must opt for the business. Most youngsters in our community are pursuing a Bachelor’s degree and want to find jobs away from Kumbharwada. I am happy with whatever I chose. That’s the reason why our families moved here in the first place; a better life for everyone. The pottery business is not doing that anymore, says Jay Chitroda, 22.
Twenty-six-year-old Dilip Tank says, “Youngsters in Kumbharwada are looking for a better lifestyle, better opportunities, and lucrative jobs. We do not disrespect pottery, it is our traditional business but it will not give us what we get, working outside Kumbharwada.” According to Chitroda and Tank, almost 60 to 70 per cent of the youth in Kumbharwada have either opted to join the merchant navy or are in the process of undergoing training to do so. Jay’s younger brother Dhruven too is going to train for it.
Vikas Nursitank, 25, whose family has been making pots for a century, too has opted for life outside Kumbharwada. An MBA, he now runs coaching classes in Dharavi. “My father made enough money and gave me a good life, but for my kid, I want an even better life for my kid.”
Kumbharwada was established on the outskirts of Dharavi in the latter half of the 19th century, when Mumbai’s municipal authorities moved the potters from their settlement in the south of the city, to the north because the smoke from their kilns was deemed a nuisance by the wealthy residents. The migrants’ new home, Dharavi, too was just close enough to Gujarat’s border for them to import soil for pottery and the port in Mumbai opened up business avenues. Now, the potters’ wheel has come full circle and the new generation has decided to break the mould and move on to greener pastures.
