Communities who are directly involved with Sassoon Docks
Women of the Banjara community who peel and clean prawns and
other seafood directly affected by Sassoon Docks closure.
other seafood directly affected by Sassoon Docks closure.
People from the Banjara Community originally hail from Rajasthan, North-Gujarat
and Madhya Pradesh. There origin is said to be from the zone between Bikaner and Bahawalpur in Pakistan. Over the years, the Banjaras had spread to
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other states
of India as well.
The Banjaras originally belong to an ethnic, nomadic group
that travel far and wide and don’t actually have permanent homes. They are
spread over different regions in the country. But, the Banjaras living in
Mumbai, those working in Sassoon Docks have now been living in the city for
generations now. They are not nomadic tribes any more and though they belong to
the same community, they are all settled in the city and most of them living
here have been born and brought up in the city itself.
The Banjaras living in
South Mumbai work at the Docks as fish peelers, boat loaders, helpers and do
other odd jobs at the Docks. The generation that follows these learn the tricks
of the trade at Sassoon Docks from an early age itself. These Banjaras working at the
Docks at Sassoon Docks live in nearby slums - Ambedkar Nagar, Sundar Nagri,
Macchimaar Nagar, Geeta Nagar etc.
Those working at the Docks live in the
neighbourhood with others from their own community doing similar jobs. They
don’t know much about the world outside the docks as their whole lives revolve
around it. Banjaras are early risers and start working as early as dawn when the
seafood is brought in freshly from the sea. They spend hours working at the Docks itself. Most of these people work hard to give their children the
education that they didn’t have the privilege to attain hoping to provide them a
better future and with the Sassoon Docks in trouble most of these people risk losing their only source of livelihood. And, since working at the Docks is the only skill that they
know, their future looks very bleak and the dream of giving their future
generation a proper education will remain just that… a distant dream.
South Indians involved with the loading and unloading of seafood
North Indians involved with the transport of ice for preservation purposes
...and the ethnic Kolis involved directly with the fishing trade
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