issue 02: the toolhouse story - a peek into ’s multi functional spaces

1st October 2020

One month after the extended theyare are coping. coping. Based Based on ontheir had bounced back to normal. lockdown ended on August 31st, theirresponses, responses, and and first first hand A few respondents went to the we speak to our randomised handobservations observations of our of ourvery own extent of saying, “It seemed sample set of 38 respondents veryteam own member team member in Dharavi, in it like the lockdown never once again to know how they Dharavi,seemed it likeseemed life like life happened”. Our line of research in this newsletter attempts to understand the idiosyncrasies of Dharavi that allowed it to bounce back so quickly, while the rest of the city and country are still recuperating.

The Tool-house [1]

Dharavi is home to Rented to a family Rented to Urbz approximately 20,000 factories [2] and small businesses, while being home to more than

[3] Rented to an 8,50,000 residents. It is a embroidery workshop hyper-mixed use settlement, Owner’s room with a hyper-linked network Rented to a family of economic and production Owner’s room chains. The concept of a tool- house embodies the smallest unit of this system; a house as Owner’s room a space for residency as well as Kitchen space rented economic activity. In Dharavi, to a food business the tool-house exists within a network of thousands of tool houses which amass a scale of production that satisfies the basic tenets of business economics and profitability, while fostering a sense of Picture illustrating the tool-house concept observed in the building which housed the URBZ office in Dharavi from 2010 to 2013 kinship and locality.

1 3 https://www.urbz.net/homegrown https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/inside-dharavi-india-s-largest--and-a- 2 https://time.com/5892712/india-economy-covid-19/ major-covid-hotspot/story-ZbX5VOngcJImsK9F4ohBvM.html

urbz.net | Page 01 This network also satisfies the basic tenets of individual economics. A Potter In Dharavi

26 respondents have Abbasbhai who belongs to Kumbharwada, began workspaces in Dharavi his workshop on the ground floor and home on the first floor. As his family expanded and needed 9 respondents don’t more space, Abbasbhai moved his workshop next have workpaces in door. Most of his employees live in Kumbharwada or in Dharavi. “In a business, people are Dharavi hired based on specific jobs, following a specific sequence of activities. Workers are needed at 3 respondents have specific times, and living in the very next lane mobile workspaces allows that,” says Ashwin Wadhar, who has resumed work at Abbasbhai’s workshop and Thus the tool-house is an is producing stock for the upcoming festival of embodiment of a mixed-use Diwali. structure as well as a mixed- use settlement. It is a character so intrinsic to the built fabric of Dharavi, and allows for an 26 out of our 35 respondents jobs outside of Dharavi, 6 are economically viable way for have a work space in Dharavi, salaried employees and only 3 small production houses to indicating a particular live- ran entrepreneurial ventures. sustain amidst the rising urban work setup prevalent in Our survey indicates that costs, while adding to Dharavi’s

[4] Dharavi. Out of the 9 with most respondents involved $1 billion economy.

9 No 15 Yes

2 at somepoint

The chart shows number of respondents who have their workspace in Dharavi and if their workspace is in the same building they live in. It also shows people who used to work from home at some point. Abbasbhai at his workshop in Kumbharwada, Dharavi

4 https://www.livemint.com/news/india/dharavi-s-economy-goes-down-the-tubes-11587152095394.html

urbz.net | Page 02 in small-scale production restrictions with different or entrepreneurial activities intensities during the 5 month prefer to live and work in close long period. Additionally, the Big ideas proximity. Our respondents’ Indian economy has suffered originate at definitions of workspace varies a 23.9% contraction due to the

[6] home from a welding or a pottery economic lockdown , having Gyaan Rao, a 22 year old workshop to an artist’s studio, a direct impact on Dharavi’s resident of Dharavi, wants from a tailor’s workstation to a production which caters to to set up two business home-based NGO setup, from local, city, national as well ventures with his friends; garment traders business who as international customers. a garment shop and a uses his bedroom as storage However, Dharavi was one of stationery shop. Noticing to contractors who work out of the first to resume business in a lack of stationary shops their phone and project sites . in his locality, he wants in Dharavi. This diversity in the to start one on his street, idea of a workspace questions From our survey, we observed and source the products the understanding of the strict the commonalities between for sale from Masjid land-use often imposed on those who resumed economic Bandar. Gyaan is these settlements under the activity. Proximity of workplaces expecting his first order to ambit of development. to home, resources, suppliers, arrive by 25th November, employees and customers were recurring factors which he initially wants What happened to store and sell out facilitating quick resumption of during the lockdown of his home. Because our respondents’ businesses, of his contacts in the Various phases of the while still recuperating from [5] neighbourhood , he is lockdown imposed different the economic aftermath of the sure of doing well with lockdown. sales. Gyaan wants to procure garments whole- sale and sell at various weekly markets around the city. On days without any markets, he will be storing the goods at his home, and sell them locally. With a large family at home, he predicts that he will have to take up a shop on rent soon, but will manage from home for the time being since it is the most financially

Lockdown in Dharavi during the pandemic

5 https://urbz.net/pdf/dharavi-millennials 6 https://time.com/5892712/india-economy-covid-19/

urbz.net | Page 03 For some however, the break in the demand cycle, no local trains, lack of local labour, kinks in supply of raw material, Purchasing and the dependency on Power external business to resume normalcy are factors more Local Transport impactful in prolonging closure of economic Dependency activity. on external businesses Did the tool-house Factors help in resuming Affecting work faster? Businesses in Dharavi 25 of 38 Supply of Raw Market Demand Materials respondents have already resumed work, though at a slow pace. Proximity of home to work TOOLHOUSE Labour/ 17 of these 25 Workers have workspaces in Dharavi. lockdown

has left the majority in our Most attributed this to physical 17 of 25 respondents country in a financially access to their workspace desperate situation and who have workspaces during lockdown, and access to depleted savings, people their network of resources. With in Dharavi said that of Dharavi jumped back to the rest of the city crippled this arrangement their feet and resumed work, due to the restricted public enabled them to however slow it may be, transport systems, the tool- resume work sooner because they could. The close house removes the commute entanglement of residences after the lockdown. barrier from impacting with the economic fabric of business. This led us to analyse the the neighbourhood enabled economic resilience of Dharavi them to do so. Even in the peak We further analysed our 15 through the lens of spatial of the lockdown, Dharavi was respondents who work in a proximities, specifically through producing masks, PPE kits and typical tool-house setup i.e. the concept of tool-house and sanitizers by tens of thousands living and working in the same [7] per day. space, or work setup being on their networks. While the one floor and residential on

6 https://urbz.net/unmasking-prejudice

urbz.net | Page 04 another of the same building. 9 out of 15 such respondents claimed to have resumed work, How did the tool-house help of which many are individual post-lockdown? entrepreneurs such as Kavita Koli is a resident of where she contractors, brokers, musicians, runs a parlour and tiffin service out of her house. artists and beauticians. Her parlour business runs out of the ground floor room, and she was able to start as soon as the Of the 17 people lockdown lifted. She attributed this to her easy whose work has access to the parlour, as well as her employees resumed in Dharavi, 9 and customers living in the neighbourhood itself. However, the number of customers and the had their workspace average daily income has been severely impacted. in the same building. Gulzar Khan is a garment trader from Dharavi who usually sources his supplies from New Delhi, This may indicate that but procured the materials from the businesses with lesser wholesale market (takes approximately 30 minutes dependency on the demand- of commute) during the lockdown. He stocks the supply cycles of hard goods supplies in his bedroom, explaining that he had were able to kick start sooner. a shop initially but since business didn’t pick up For production-related as much, he is able to manage from his room. businesses such as tailors, His family helps out when an extra pair of hands plastic recycling etc., there was are needed. His work has resumed since most of a greater dependency on city- his customers are within Dharavi, but since the wide chains of demand-supply. purchasing capacity of people has been severely The spatial proximities and impacted, he is not able to sell any stock. economic networks of the tool-houses within Dharavi could not provide the same benefits to people whose chains of demand-supply depended on city wide chains that were impeded due to the lockdown.

However, it must be noted that multiple factors affected the resumption of business, and the tool-house must not be studied in isolation. For example, 3 out of 5 of our respondents who are home-

A street in Dharavi lined with tool-houses

urbz.net | Page 05 based tailors are currently in their villages due to the pandemic, and unable to Business as usual during the resume work. Others ran businesses connected to city- lockdown wide chains and linkages, Habib Tepu is a welding workshop owner in which have not yet resumed. Dharavi, which is a 5 minute walk from home. He Local self-sufficiency in highly was able to continue his work throughout the urbanised areas is extremely lockdown. Though he gets his resources from rare, and the built environment metal market, he had stocked materials right can only help that much when before lockdown and that helped him continue his the external systems are work. Another advantage was that all his workers decapitated. were in Dharavi. The increase in thefts during lockdown made people order a lot of channel One of our respondents is a gates for security and because he has developed papad-seller at a small stall contacts and relations in Dharavi over the years, outside her house. She has most of them approached him to place their been unable to resume work orders. This kept him working during the lockdown since her stock of papad comes even though all other businesses were shutting from , and local trains down. are not functional yet. She has now taken up a job at the neighbouring Sion hospital where she works in the Covid chain is broken he has yet not It seems that small-scale chain is broken he has yet not business resumes. ward. Another respondent runs resumed his business. He is production like pottery, resumed his business. He is a plastic shop in the same now involved in social work welding, plastic etc. don’t now involved in social work It seems that small-scale building where he lives but activities in his locality until his necessarily require a specific activities in his locality until his production like pottery, because the demand supply business resumes. live up-work down situation, welding, plastic etc. don’t but supplies and resources as necessarily require a specific well as access and proximity live up-work down situation, to their customers to continue but supplies and resources as work during lockdown. well as access and proximity This may indicate that a to their customers to continue highly dense spatiality of work during lockdown. residential, commercial and This may indicate that a industrial functions provides highly dense spatiality of a self-sustained ecosystem of residential, commercial and resources such as material, industrial functions provides manpower and customers for a self-sustained ecosystem of small-scale production houses resources such as material, to flourish. manpower and customers for small-scale production houses to flourish.

A woman making pots at her house in Kumbharwada, Dharavi

urbz.net | Page 06 a business of carton boxes in . They initially started off from their home, with a shop on the ground floor and house on the first floor. Eventually, they shifted their business to Bhiwandi since their main supplier moved their setup to Bhiwandi. The family has a flat in Bhiwandi as well.

Tool-house: a model Tailors working at a garment manufacturing workshop in Dharavi of resilience?

9 of our respondents live selling vegetables in his own in Dharavi but have their locality. Out of 30 workplaces outside. Saving 2, respondents who they all expressed a desire to Most people in the production said their live-work business preferred to establish work in Dharavi or closer to situation has helped home. However, Dharavi, being their workspace in very close with more efficient home to primarily small-scale proximity. However, those who businesses, does not provide chose to do it outside Dharavi work 26 have their the working environment, did so to get closer to their workspace in Dharavi. financial stability or aspirations source of raw material or those [8] they supply to. They intend to For those who have resumed they desire. During and after live closer to their workplaces work within Dharavi, all out the lockdown, they are either and establish a base within respondents corroborate to the working from home, unable their economic networks, closely linked live-work setups to go to work due to transport creating tool-house networks playing an important role in restrictions, or let go, either elsewhere. improving work efficiency temporarily or permanently. during pre and post lockdown Many such respondents took up An interviewee who runs a conditions. local tasks to keep the income fabrication workshop at Grant flowing. Road, agrees that having his Due to the diversity in nature house and workspace closer of workspaces, their spatial A resident of Dharavi, who would have been easier. He quality, scale and type of worked as a light design cannot do so as most of his businesses, and employer technician in , started resources are obtained from or employee positions, tool- delivering milk in Dharavi in Grant Road, but he cannot houses can embody both the mornings as he had no move there because of the positive and negative attributes income from his job during the high real estate prices.Another to the quality of life and work. lockdown. His colleague began interviewee and his father run While it serves as one of the

7 https://urbz.net/pdf/dharavi-millennials

urbz.net | Page 07 most economically-productive Secondary income-generating activities and affordable spaces for many possible in Dharavi, the tool-house also Low capital cost and fixed cost meets concerns regarding the Saving travel time family setup interfering with Flexible hours and stress of work productivity or vice versa, compromises with the living conditions and lifestyle, or having to live away from family Family time Healthier eating habits in certain cases. However, most of the respondents with such concerns had either Proximity of acclimatized to such conditions Saving home to work Supported by family travel money TOOLHOUSE (sometimes a or took to this setup as a substitute for transient situation. additional labour) Provide additional Easy additional non-monetary Habib Tepu, a fabrication working hours family support business owner, chose to open his business next door Common reasons cited by the respondents for resuming business, aided by the as he wanted to capitalise on tool-house setup the social capital built here since childhood to aid in his business.

Such robust systems of close- Spatial proximity aids work knit economic networks and flexibility social capital tends to be a Vidya Mane occupies a clerical position at a school preference for most people close to her house. The proximity of her house and in Dharavi, whether they be school has allowed her to focus on her social work business owners, self-employed ventures; an NGO called Bhoomi Swachata Foundation individuals or employees. and a Bachat Gat (Women’s Self Help Group). The Tool-houses, where economic school’s proximity to her house opened up more time and social transactions overlap and flexible working hours, which she diligently spent constitute a greater resilience on her social ventures. She operates these ventures than standalone economic from her house, where they live on the top floor and and social ecosystems. This has given the ground floor on rent. She is currently form of resilience stems from planning to turn the ground floor into an office for the individual mettle, community NGO. She feels that such an arrangement has helped ties and economic networks to her balance her work at school and NGO and her family achieve a level of local self- relations have been stronger as her husband and kids sufficiency. support her in what she does.

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