When Mohammad Zaki estimates his losses, and those of others near the Old Railway Bridge, after the recent floods in Delhi, he does so in terms of thousands of second-hand dhotis. Under the Old Railway Bridge, or the city’s Lohe ka Pul, that spans the Yamuna near the Red Fort, the dhotis still lie — drenched and discoloured, with the white having turned brown in some cases. Zaki, an Old Delhi resident, sits in the shade beneath the bridge, a week after the Yamuna’s floodwaters left the dhotis sodden. “They are second-hand, and they are sent to us for a wash,” he said, looking towards two large piles stacked close to the bridge. In Zaki’s line of work, the dhotis are to be kept clean so they can be used again — often for cleaning. “The cloth is used in big factories to clean machines. It is also used to clean parts of vehicles and to wipe off grease from hands. Halwais (confectioners) use it, sometimes at weddings. But where they are sold does not concern us. Humein sirf dhulai se matlab hain (we are only concerned with the washing),” he said. While Zaki said the dhotis may be coming from other parts of the country, they are brought to them by “businessmen”. And, they are to be returned to them. “It goes back to parts of Delhi like Maujpur, even places like Gurgaon and Panipat in Haryana. They send vehicles to pick them up, sometimes we take it back ourselves,” he said. This time, the dhotis will be returned, but not in the usual spotless condition that they are required to be in. The dhotis that are now wet, were left out on the floodplains, either already dried or set out to dry, when the river’s waters rose. “We didn’t anticipate this sort of rise in levels. We heard that 3 lakh cusecs of water from the Hathnikund barrage was released, but a release of that amount does not usually affect us. This year, this release brought water higher up. With 8 lakh (cusecs) we have seen ankle-deep water here,” said one of the 15-20 men who wash dhotis near Old Railway Bridge, gesturing towards the pillars of sorts. Zaki estimates there would have been around 15,000 dhotis when the water began to rise: “Each of us has around 1,000 dhotis with us at any given time. We keep those with us for five days. For the labour, we are paid Rs 250 per day. If it is a hot day, it takes 2-2.5 hours for a dhoti to dry.” For Zaki, who said that he has been washing clothes for 40 to 45 years, problems began before the flood. “They (the authorities) asked us to leave three to four months ago. We were asked not to wash clothes in the river, so we stopped. But we were still drying the dhotis here since it is an open and empty space,” he said. Ehsan, who has been washing clothes in the river since he was eight years old, said, “We were asked to leave a few months ago, and the bhatti (a type of furnace, where steam is used to clean the clothes) was pulled down. We need the bhatti to clean the cloth properly. Maybe around 2,000 to 3,000 dhotis can be salvaged.” Zaki said, “We are hoping those who will take the dhotis back will understand that it was a flood that we did not see coming. We will try and dry the ones that are wet, but we cannot do that yet because the ground is still damp.” The question of livelihood remains, he added. “There were 250-300 of us when I started washing clothes. There are 15-20 of us now. If we are considered to be illegal, what can we do.”
