Standing 40 metres high,the chimney of the India United Mill was the tallest structure in the then Bombays thriving Girangaon,where 58 mills would sound the bugle at 7.00 a.m. sharp and coal smoke would puff high in the blue sky,an indicator for the 2.5 lakh workers to start work. Four decades on,2010 will see history being rewritten in Central Mumbai as the 45-storeyed Shangri la Hotel will jostle high enough to be the tallest hotel in the city on the very space where mill workers spun the finest cotton. The irony could not have been more towering in an area where mills once dominated 600 acres of land to produce the best textile in the country. So even as Mumbai buzzed this week with reports of three National Textile Corporation (NTC) mills being resurrected,the mood among managers and workers of the last of the citys textile mills was sombre. These are the last of the mills to be resurrected; there will be no more modernisation, said NTC CMD Ramchandra Pillai. In other words,these three revived NTC millsTata Mills,Podar Mills and United Mills Number 5would be the last slice of Mumbais mill culture that once defined the citys social and cultural life. *** NTC has sold five of the 25 mills it owned in Mumbai and is in the process of selling another nine from April. Four have entered into joint ventures with private companies although they have shut down. Three have been given to municipal authorities as part of a one-third share for setting up recreational facilities and the decision on one is pending. The remaining three were the ones renovated and inaugurated this week. Gauging that its profit lies not in textile but in real estate,NTC decided to open vast tracts of land for commercial enterprises,high-end residential towers,night clubs,shopping bazaars and luxury shops in 2005 and ended up earning Rs 2,000 crore from the sale of five mills. But the process of winding them up began years earlier. Young Vilas Sarmalkar,who had just received a permanent posting in Hindustan Thackersay Mill in 1998,was sacked the following year without reason or notice. It happened suddenly. One night,the mill was closed and the owner said there was no need to come to work. Since I had not completed five years of permanent work,I did not even get the VRS amount. Rs 1 lakh was all that was given to me, he says. In the next few years,Sarmalkar did odd jobs after whiling his time at home. Three years ago,he would work as a supervisor at a Subhiksha retail chain,again for a meagre salary. He now works at Tata Mills on contract. The epitaph of the mill worker was being written even when they were busy spinning white cotton on looms. While the great mill strike of 1982 led by Datta Samant for higher wages and bonuses crippled the industry,by 2004,the process was more or less complete as NTC shut down operations of more than 15 mills,forcing 25,000 workers to take VRS. *** The sound of the bugle,the hum from spinning looms and the smoke from chimney have been replaced with thumping music and the latest soundtracks in the nightclubs that have sprung up in these mill compounds. The Gandhi capped,dabba-carrying mill worker has given way to the young and restless from the city and outside who come to relax in the sprawling mill interiors. The multi-storeyed buildings on the mill land lend a superior landscape in the once lower middle class hub. In the background,the moss laden walls and the charcoal soot on the mills sit silently. Gayatri Ruia,director of business development,Palladium,the iconic new lifestyle destination at High Street Phoenix mall (which came up where Phoenix Mills was),says the family would like to take credit for redeveloping Central Mumbai. My husband (Atul,Director,Phoenix Ltd) had a vision to develop Lower Parel the way it is evolving now. Central Bombay is the only area that has scope for redevelopment due to the large tracts of mill land as South Mumbai is already populated and congested, she says. On the land where Phoenix Mills once stood came up Bowling Company,Indias premier leisure centre with 30,000 square feet of state-of-the-art fun and thus began a string of mass social agitations,bringing the focus back on the mill workers. It pained us to know that jobs of workers were snatched to make way for discotheques, says Neera Adarkar,architecture and urban researcher who led the agitation under Girangaon Bachao Andolan. Ruia says it was just a minor reaction which is expected during a major upheaval. Every industry goes through cyclical changes,the mill industry had its time in the 1970s,when there was a boom,but the 1980s saw its downfall and later years,its ultimate closure. Its nothing unusual. The Modernisation Although NTC in 2002 had proposed a scheme to sell 15 mills and invest the money earned in 10 working mills,this never happened. Instead they sold five mills and only revived three. Four entered a contact for joint venture with private companies but production was stopped, says Datta Iswalkar,secretary,Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti. Since then,unit after unit of NTC mills were closed down,looms put on sale and workers forced to take VRS as mills reported sick due to continuous losses and erosion of equity. Since 2006-2007,the NTC started investing in automatic looms to resurrect the three mills: Tata Mills,Podar Mills and India United Mills Number 5. At the cost of Rs 138.24 crore,the modernisation began two years ago with the purchase of automatic looms from Russia and China. In addition to the existing 2,500 employees working here,NTC has promised to hire new workers to increase the strength and boost productivity. A board outside Tata Mills displays a sign,which at one time would have generated an overpowering response from the youth: Wanted: boys and girls to work in the mill. But not many are excited. Who would want to work here for a paltry sum of Rs 120 a day. Youths get a better payment if they would stand at nakas for some daily wage work like house painting or carpentry, says Suresh Anbawne,a former mill worker. Despite Union Minister Dayandihi Marans assurances that the NTC land would not be sold and that fresh investment will be made to modernise the mills,the workers are apprehensive. Ashok Rahate,a 53-year-old former employee of India United Mill Number 5 who was forced to take VRS and now works at Tata Mills,says,No one can guarantee that these three mills will continue to function forever, he says. Vasudev Kaskar,52,and Vidyadhar Raul,48, are among those who have returned to the mills. Both were working in Gold Mohur Mills (now defunct and in a joint venture with Pantaloons) and were forced to take VRS in 2004. We worked as watchmen for two years and were paid Rs 1,600 a month. How can a mill worker who is used to a salary of Rs 5,000 live on such a small amount, asks Raul. So they joined Tata Mills but the rules were now different. According to mill authorities,VRS employees are not entitled to a permanent job and can only work on contract as a badli kamgaar. We only get work in the mill if one of the employees is absent or there is a vacant position for the retired worker. If not,we have to return home, says Kaskar. Sixty three-year-old Kisan Thorat would know better. Every day,the mill worker leaves his house in the far eastern suburb of Ghatkopar at 5.00 a.m. to reach Tata Mill at Dadar at 7 a.m. If I am lucky,I get work,or else I go back, says the former employee of New City Mills. There is nothing else I know but to work in a mill this is what I have done for 22 years, he says. The new workers Renuka Dande,18; Chaya Halge,20; Srushti Kalekar,26 The three girls,all residents of Central Mumbai,joined India United Mill Number 5 this month. The daily wage is Rs 100 a day. I am a trainee but I hope to be taken on contract and am learning the job quickly, says Dande who supports her family of eight. Her cousin Halge too has nine members in the family to support. In my previous screen printing job,I got Rs 1,600 a month,so this is much better. I am sure that with the new machines,the mills will continue to function. I dont want to think about its closure, she says. Kalekar says she needs to work to supplement the family incomeher husband and brother-in-law work but the money isnt good enough. We know the mills are shutting down and this is among the last few that are still functional,but there are around 1,000 people here and I dont think they will shut it down, she says. Back in the mill Harivijay Mumbarkar,53 Those were the best days of our mill life. The atmosphere was charged up, recalls Mumbarkar of the days in Tata Mills before the 1982 strike. We were confident of meeting our demands and I thought even my children would continue to work in this mill. But the strike changed all that. Both sides stuck to their positions. For 26 years,Mumbarkar had to leave Mumbai and shift base to native Konkan. But he returned two years ago to help his four children complete their education. He is now back at Tata Mills,this time as a contract worker. I am back in the mills but there is no assurance that I will get to work everyday. If there is an absentee or a vacancy,I earn my Rs 160 for the day, he says. Staying in a rented 160-sq-foot tenement in a chawl in Bhoiwada,he pays Rs 1,700 as renthalf his monthly income if he is lucky to work for 30 days a month. We cut down on our daily expenses. And of course,meals are not made twice a day. Hoping to come back Shyamrao Patil,53 In 2004,when New City Mills told workers to take their VRS,Patil was among the 60-odd workers who refused to do so. The mill,which entered into a joint venture with the Pantaloons group,has struck a deal with the union,promising jobs to workers who didnt opt for their VRS,whenever the textile units reopened. I have been getting my salary for the last two years though I have been sitting at home,but I want to work, says Patil,who was a permanent employee. While the mill is defunct,the private firm is yet to restart operations. Out of Work Madhukar Gangurde,53 The first few months were fine as I had Rs 5 lakh from my VRS money,but then it became difficult to sustain any more, says Gangurde. With a meagre pension of Rs 1,100,Gangurde says the family of five had a tough time living in Central Mumbai and started hawking. I would sit at any vacant corner of the road and sell footwear. It was a tough decision but there was no time to reflect on what others would think. I had to do something if my family was to be fed, he says. Gangurde soon learnt to find his way of doing business on the footpaths of Mumbai. He knows a quick salam to the patrolling hawaldar,calling out sahib to BMC officers,and parting with some money to the hafta collectors will keep his business goinglike he has been doing for the last four years. No one is really concerned about how we survive. I never thought I would end up like this on the road, he says.
