Marathi milkmen is Raj pilot project to elbow out migrants

The aim is to get Maharashtrians to enter professions and trades dominated by migrants from these two north Indian states and slowly reclaim them.

And the ubiquitous doodhwalla is their first target.

Mumbai8217;s daily demand for milk hovers around 40 lakh litres, much of which comes from western and northern Maharashtra. And the production and distribution are pretty much controlled by migrants from north India.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Kaamgar Sena, the labour wing of Raj8217;s party, plans to break this domination and has announced a 110-member Shri Krishna Doodh Vitaran Sanstha, to be formally launched on March 9, the MNS foundation day.

The distribution system, which has already started functioning in parts of the central suburbs, will supply milk to residential complexes, tea-stalls, hotels and restaurants between Mulund and Ghatkopar.

The MNS is not restricting itself to just milk distribution though. It is also training young Maharashtrians to make bhelpuri, panipuri and sevpuri 8212; as part of the streetfood business, which is another north Indian bastion in Mumbai.

8220;We cannot resort to violence all the time,8221; says Manoj Chavan, chief of the MNS workers8217; union. 8220;We have therefore decided to capture the areas where north Indians are financially strong. We are inspiring our youth to take over their businesses. If we grab their monetary pulse, they8217;ll be forced to look elsewhere.8221;

The milk distribution scheme, he adds, would be replicated in the western suburbs and elsewhere across the state. 8220;We are targeting a daily collection of Rs 1,000 and an annual collection of Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh,8221; Chavan said.

The project has already met with limited success in the central suburbs, members of the distribution society claim. They say they have won over 3,500 customers, including 25 major ones, since they launched informally this month, with many switching loyalties to them.

The new Marathi milkmen include students, men with day jobs and even those unemployed until now. Twenty-three-year-old Mahesh Pingle, in his first year of graduation, says he decided to join the cooperative after hearing of it from his friends and now earns Rs 5,000 a month.

Kishore Supal, who supplies milk to 70 families in Nahar and Bhatwadi, was doing 12-hour shifts at a courier company for Rs 2,500 a month. He now distributes milk in the morning and works later as a peon in a travel agency. 8220;My income has doubled,8221; says Supal, who makes an extra Rs 3,500 a month now.

The cooperative works on a no-profit-no-loss basis, providing Re 1 as commission per litre to its members as against 40 paise earned by other distributors.

Much of the marketing was done by 8220;word-of-mouth8221;, and considering the MNS8217;s clout in the Maharashtrian areas of the central suburbs, few would have dared to not fall for the campaign.

Housewife Nanda Sanjay Gunjal, a Ghatkopar resident, is one of the new converts. 8220;After we got to know of Maharashtrian youth doing the job, we discontinued the bhaiyya,8221; she said. 8220;If I can do my bit by purchasing milk from them, I8217;d be happy to have supported them.8221;

Some north Indians are switching too, although not entirely for the same reasons. Bimalkant Pandey, who owns a paan-shop in Jambulpada, now buys milk from Satish Dhavale. 8220;The quality of the milk was not good,8221; Pandey claims, as an explanation for his decision to switch. 8220;There would be regular problems of it being watery or sometimes smelly. Now I am happy with the quality and also happy for my Maharashtrian brothers.8221;

But Arun Singh, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh who owns about 150 buffaloes and supplies 400-500 litres of milk in Ghatkopar everyday, says he is undeterred by the competition. 8220;Customers will buy milk from the people they trust. I don8217;t think this move will impact us,8221; he said, referring to the MNS campaign.