Nearly four decades ago Uttam Samanta migrated from West Bengal to join one of the small gold units forming the lowest rung of Mumbai’s multi-billion jewellery trade.
A profession involving precious metal has not made him rich but it paid enough to support his family back home. It even inspired his son Ganesh to follow suit.
But today, the father-son duo are among the nearly 70,000 workers, majority of them Bengali migrants, who may lose their jobs if the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) goes ahead with its plan to ban all gold processing activities running in residential buildings.
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The recommendation is one of the many made by a committee set up to look into last month’s Kalbadevi blaze which killed four senior fire officers, including its then chief Sunil Nasrekar.
While a formal intimation hasn’t come yet, the buzz has made its way to the artisans sparking off fears. Hundreds of such units operate from tiny rooms in multi-storied buildings in the narrow bylanes of Kalbadevi, Crawford Market and Zaveri Bazaar.
Working in one such unit, Ganesh explains how it is the latest addition to his worries over harsh working conditions, modest incomes and sharper deadlines thus far.
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His colleague Ranjit shares similar concerns: “We work close to 13 hours daily. But whatever we earn is better than what we could have made in our villages. This is my only skill. If this goes, I don’t know what I will do.”
Jewellers outsource the designing work or the subtasks involved in assembling of ornaments to these units which work on a commission basis. Those running them say congestion is to be blamed for fire hazards but add it is beyond them to afford bigger spaces or pay commercial rate rents.