The row of Tibetan hawkers selling sweaters and jackets across the road from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is hard to miss. Each year, a few hundred Tibetan exiles — mainly from Mundgod in Karnataka, one of the biggest settlements of this refugee community in India — make a trip to the city to spend a few months selling winter-wear.
Their winter earnings are a substantial part of the community’s annual income; the rest of the year, they sustain themselves with labour and farming work. Their vendors source their merchandise from Ludhiana, Punjab, the hub of the woollen garment industry in India, and sell it in markets around the country. In Mumbai, they usually rent rooms in the Parel area, where most of the local community is based. To help with their trade, they also bring with them non-Tibetan residents of Mundgod, with whom the community has built strong relationships over the decades of their exile.
Despite Mumbai’s mild winters, the selling skills and warm smiles of the Tibetans see them do steady business on the city, and their coming is something Mumbai office-goers look forward to. That iconic city chronicler, Behram Contractor a.k.a. Busybee, would refer to them as a sign of approaching winter in the city.
“My family has been in this business since 1965 when we migrated to India from Tibet,” says Phurbu Dolma, is as at home in Mumbai as she is in Mundgod. “I myself have been coming to Mumbai since around 3 decades every year.” This year, however, the Tibetans have to overcome problem no one could have anticipated. Just as they had settled into the city, the Prime Minister’s demonetisation announcement brought a chill to street vendors nation-wide.
Like those in the informal sector everywhere, the Tibetans aren’t equipped to handle card payments or bank transfers. Many of them have been relying on old relationships with their suppliers in Ludhiana, who have helped them by taking demonetised notes from them as payment.
“The business was obviously hit,” says Annu Kamar, of the Mumbai Tibetan Sweater Sellers association. “People naturally stopped spending money on the goods we sell because of the cash crunch. Business in the Parel market has gone down by 50 per cent as of now.”
“While last year I had recorded an earning of Rs. 60,000 to 70,000, this year I expect to earn around Rs. 30,000 if things improve,” says Tsering Ngodup (46). Thinlay Gyatso takes a break from shouting orders to his helpers to say, “People don’t have money to buy vegetables and rations. Plus, there isn’t much of a winter in the city.”
The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, has advised the community to support the demonetisation decision of the Indian government, Karma Yeshi, its Finance Minister, told The Hindu . “By and large, the Tibetan community in exile are extremely grateful to the Government and people of India for their support. The Tibetan Charter in Exile Article 6 says, ‘Tibetans will follow international rules and regulations of the Government of the land where they live.’ We respect the decision taken by the Government of India which is taken at the larger interest of the nation. As of now I do not think or do not have knowledge of how much the decision of demonetisation has affected the community. Just like Indians face temporary hardship, we in exile too face similar hardship.”
In their daily effort to make ends meet, the community’s long-term hopes for their homeland still live. As Mr. Ngodup says, “I struggle every day with the hopes that my children get good education and one day become leaders in the political movement of our community.”
