Socio-Economic conditions of Cobblers in Pune City

Abstract

Abstract Maladies pertaining to the unorganised sector in India have baffled policymakers and bureaucrats for years. Cobblers, compared to earlier generations, have become a rather disregarded part of the economy, partly due to digitisation and the advent of e-commerce, which has made commodities such as footwear cheaper, reducing incentives to repair footwear, especially within urban areas. This article shows that observable structural changes within one particular profession are highly dynamic and, in this case, to some extent significantly damaging for these self-employed workers. The study presents data collected from 75 cobblers operating in different parts of Pune city in India, providing insights into their current working practices and economic well-being. Utilising multinomial logistic regression (MLR) revealed that the incomes of cobblers were primarily influenced by age, ownership of land and property, not by variables such as education and experience, which generally affect the livelihoods of individuals.

Introduction

The informal or unorganised sector accounts for 90% of the Indian workforce and about 50% of the national income (Government of India, 2012). One relatively unexplored part of this unorganised sector comprises cobblers, widely known as Mochis or Chamars in India, on whom some literature exists, mainly focused on their lowly social ranking and untouchable status (Fuchs, 1981; Mahar, 1972; Mendelsohn & Vicziany, 2000; Mukerji, 1980; Ouwerkerk, 1945; Rawat, 2011; Walton, 1903). Originally, people who worked as cobblers were crafting and customising shoes, sandals (chappals) and other forms of footwear, thus engaged in ‘cobblering’, as we shall call it throughout. However, with the recent advent of e-commerce and a swathe of cheaper products, the business procured by cobblers has been diminishing drastically every year. In response, many cobblers have expanded the ambit of their work to include repairing and mending other leather and rubber products to recuperate the losses due to the ‘lack of shoes that come to their door’, as one of our respondents called it.

Similar to most self-employed workers, cobblers face uncertain and hazardous work conditions due to lack of education and social disregard stemming from ethnicity. In most cases, cobblers belong to the Chamar community, also referred to as Chambhars or Chambars (Mendelsohn & Vicziany, 2000: 285). Ciotti (2006) and Rawat (2011) report that the Chamars form the largest caste community amongst Dalits and are often associated with activities such as skinning dead animals and handling leather. Traditionally landless workers (Mukerji, 1980: 27), historically Chamars have often been denied opportunities to undergo education. While it is a fact that ‘[t]oday, most Untouchables do not perform the work that is the polluting mark of their caste’ (Mendelsohn & Vicziany, 2000: 7), mainly in urban areas, this community of individuals, due to their traditional connection with leatherwork, has over time been associated with work as cobblers, mending and repairing shoes and other footwear for a living.

Presently, these unorganised workers can still be spotted on the sides of roads, or within markets, carrying out their daily activities, largely unnoticed. Their profession matches the ideal definition of an enterprise within the traditional informal sector due to their relatively small size, labour-intensive activities, lower productivity and lesser technological adaption (Bairagya, 2010). Reviewing the existing literature, we found a severe lack of up-to-date information on the work and lives of cobblers across India. Hence, this study, conducted between July and September 2019, was undertaken partly to fill the knowledge gap regarding the current socio-economic conditions of cobblers.

A sample of 75 cobblers from across Pune city was selected for the survey. Simple random sampling was employed and concurrently data was recorded using schedules prepared by both researchers, who themselves interviewed all individuals within the sample. To identify any relationships between a select set of explanatory variables and the outcome variable, which is income in our case, we used a multinomial logistic regression (MLR) model. Our primary research objective was to collect and present data related to various socio-economic variables governing the economic lives of cobblers in Pune city in India. Our secondary objective was to probe the nature and dimensions of problems faced by cobblers in their daily work as part of the informal sector of India’s economy.

Due to a lack of resources, we were unable to explore the history and evolution of the Chamar community in the Indian context in detail, but are aware of some existing literature of a general nature (Briggs, 1920) and on specific aspects (Gupta, 2016). The lack of data on government (state and central) portals on this community appears to severely constrain the ability of researchers to conduct studies on similar community/class-based professions. Although a sample size of 75 is not tiny, considering the relatively small number of cobblers that have continued to operate, stronger inferences could be drawn if a larger sample size were to be considered.

Our discussion is presented in several sections, the first of which comprises an overview of associated literature on the subject. We then proceed to discuss the methodology for the study and present and interpret the collected data from our survey along with the statistical analysis. Throughout, the focus is on the social and economic precarities of cobblers as an occupational category that has been subjected to significant impacts from modernisation and resulting changes in consumption patterns that impact on cobblering in postcolonial India as a profession.

Literature Review

Due to the paucity of research on cobblers in India, and also reflecting our research interests, the literature reviewed for this article consisted primarily of work on the informal sector and sections of workers analogous to cobblers. The similarities in problems faced by urban informal sector units are the driving factor in analysing the difficulties of associated professions. The only article found specifically related to cobblers is Pal (2011), who surveyed a group of cobblers in Bolpur in West Bengal. He interviewed 22 cobblers and members of their households, presenting information pertaining to their income, education, religion, caste, working hours and other variables related to their living and working environments. He concluded that cobblers face two main challenges, consisting of inadequate pay and hazardous work conditions. In addition, he reported that cobblers tended to have a highly conservative outlook toward their lives and work. However, the sample size used for this survey was too small to draw concrete conclusions or base any policies on such findings.

Dror (2007) has criticised the existing state of healthcare for low-wage workers, an aspect which we considered for our study as well. Viswanath & Manoj (2015) conducted a study on construction workers at Ernakulam in Kerala, finding that most of these workers have low educational standards, are socially backward and work in poor and dangerous conditions, characteristics which we found quite similar to the Chamar community we worked with. Pradeep et al. (2017) were also a useful reference point for the present study, since they provide an overarching view of problems faced by workers in the informal sector, such as job insecurity, low wages, absence of social security and healthcare coverage, poverty, occupational hazards and long working hours. Further, Mukim (2011) analysed variables like market access and the location of work. She concluded that geographical factors play a major role in determining the concentration of workers and their low income, which is generically also the case for cobblers.

A thorough examination of existing research related to the informal sector and its associated components, involving manufacturing, services and agriculture revealed that there was an abundance of literature about various professions within the informal economy such as construction workers, weavers, farming labourers and domestic workers, but a near-total absence of literature pertaining to cobblers or the Chamar community as a whole. Particularly, there was almost a complete lack of research examining the daily lives and working environment of cobblers, which has translated into a lack of attention, regulation and required provisions for this community.

Research Methodology

Data for the study was recorded in schedules prepared by both researchers. Considering the monetary and manpower constraints faced, relevant data was collected between July and September 2019 by interviewing 75 respondents present at their workplaces, spread all over Pune city. The researchers initially drew up a list of localities mainly surrounding the heart of Pune city and then visited each area or a fixed set of areas on particular days. Most localities were explored thoroughly and all cobblers found in that locality were interviewed. Usually, the number of cobblers in each area fluctuated anywhere between one and seven. The localities considered for the study were Wanowrie, Kondhwa, Camp, Bibewadi, Market Yard, Katraj, Undri, Deccan, Bavdhan, Aundh, Baner, Kothrud, Sangvi, Ambegaon, Salisbury Park, Swargate, Talegaon, Kasarwadi and Warje. The information recorded was based on the responses of the interviewees and observations made by the researchers conducting the interviews.

Findings about Age, Experience and Skill Development of the Respondents

Among the 75 respondents, the same number of individuals (27 respondents, 36%) fell within the two age groups of 30–39 years and 40–49 years respectively. Based on their ages and considering general family patterns in India, especially among poorer families, it is safe to assume that most of these respondents have families to support. 8 respondents each (10.6%) came from the age groups of up to 29 years and 50–59 years. Only 5 respondents (6.6%) were aged 60 years or above, and only one of those five respondents was above 70 years of age.

The researchers also examined the ages at which the respondents commenced working in this profession. The results reveal that an unsurprisingly high proportion of interviewees started working as children. Specifically, 13 respondents (17.3%) began working as cobblers before the age of 18 years. Cases where children start to work at an early age remain a common phenomenon among poorer sections of Indian society. In most cases, such children began working early to provide supplementary income to their respective families. 22 respondents (29.3%) were between the ages of 18 and 22 when they started working and 18 respondents were between 23 and 29 years old when they commenced cobblering. Among most respondents who started working at an early age, as teenagers or young adults, the urgency of getting employed fast was mainly driven by two reasons, primarily the death of previous income earners, generally their fathers, or migration to completely new urban environments, whilst possessing no inherent abilities or skills to produce commodities or provide services demanded in most urban areas.

However, most intriguing here is that a substantial number, 22 respondents (29.3%) reported having started work as cobblers only after the age of 30. Out of these 22 respondents, 16 men (21.2%) were within the age group of 30–39 years when they commenced operations in this line of work, while 6 respondents (8%) reported being more than 40 years old when they started work in this field. The main reasons for such late commencement constituted sudden migration at a later age, unemployment and correspondingly, lack of jobs for them thereafter. The most common reasons for getting involved in this line of work according to most respondents of all ages included lack of education and skills for other jobs, and thus the absence of viable alternatives.

Several caste and community-based professions are hereditary, which means it is presumed that children of a particular community would continue with the profession of their fathers and forefathers. Our data agrees with this point, with 62 respondents (82.6%) reporting to have been provided with formal training, in most cases since their childhood, by their parents, mostly their fathers or another family member, to mend shoes and other forms of footwear. The remaining respondents reported having learnt the relevant skills by mere observation over time. Out of 13 such respondents, 9 individuals (12%) learnt the necessary skills by observing a family member, while 4 individuals (5.3%) picked up the required information by observing a close relative, friend or an unrelated person who performed the same work. Of course, since we only talked to people whom we identified as cobblers, we did not capture other processes of how young Chamars might obtain training for specific skills and professions.

Based on the information provided by the respondents pertaining to the two variables of their age and the age at which they started working as cobblers, the researchers were able to compute the number of years the respondents had been working in this line of occupation. Out of the 75 respondents, 15 individuals (20%) had work experience of less than a year to 5 years, 10 individuals (13.3%) worked in this profession for 6–10 years, 30 men (40%) worked for 11–20 years, 13 men (17.3%) for 21–30 years and only 7 individuals (9.3%) had been working as cobblers for 31 years or more.

Other Pertinent Variables within the Respondent Group

Out of the 75 respondents, 44 men (59%) were migrants, while the remaining 31 respondents (41%) were native to Pune itself. One very important point with respect to the sample is that none of the respondents were women and thus we can infer that cobblering is particularly a male-dominated profession. Respondents could not offer any explanation for this phenomenon. As no literature exists which takes up this point for discussion, this should serve as the basis for a completely independent and more detailed study in the future. Most respondents who were rural-urban migrants reported having been involved in farming or agriculture earlier. One reason cited frequently by most migrant respondents, typical for the arid areas of Maharashtra around Pune, was poor climatic conditions, which resulted in poor yields. Worsening economic conditions resulted in migration from rural to urban areas as a result of climate change (Bharadwaj et al., 2021).

In a few cases, the presupposition has been that the profession of handling shoes is inherent and in addition, the lack of any auxiliary skill or formal education compelled individuals to join the business of cobblering. Patnaik et al. (2015) elucidated that a blend of socio-economic and political conditions incentivises individuals from rural areas to migrate to urban areas with the hope of finding employment, earning higher incomes, and hence possibly achieving higher standards of living. This was the case for most respondents from this sample as well, with cobblering as one of several occupational choices, however limited.

The survey results reveal that an astonishingly number of 54 respondents (72%) possessed either no formal educational background whatsoever or incomplete education. For the sake of simplicity, we considered education as ‘incomplete’ if the respondent had not completed at least 10 years of schooling, seen as a minimum standard within the Indian educational system. This lack of formal education among cobblers underpins their inferior living and employment conditions. As identified, the major factor of untimely death of the previous generation of breadwinners in the family constituted a major push factor, essentially forcing young people to abandon their education and commence work early in life. Even among respondents who had completed basic schooling, the results are quite dismal. Only 13 respondents (17.3%) were found to have completed secondary education. An even smaller portion continued to pass the next prominent stage within the Indian education system, the 12th grade, after which students generally move to college or university for further education. The small fraction of cobblers who managed to complete their graduation or further equivalent higher studies narrowed to just 2 respondents (2.6%) out of the total sample. All of these factors signify the lack of formal education generally observed among workers of the larger informal economy, a significant contributor to the woes of people in this part of the economy.

We were also concerned to gain insights into the kinds of assets possessed by cobblers and to gather information on potential or existing income-earning sources which could be used to garner additional funds in times of need by offering such assets as collateral for loans. For example, rent earned from a property in the individual’s homeplace or cultivation on land present in their original home could serve this purpose. The survey revealed that 34 respondents (45.3%) owned a house, which explains why a certain proportion does not pay rent for residing within the city. In addition, 18 cobblers (24%) were proprietors of land present either in their home locations or in Pune itself. However, out of the 45.3% that owned houses, we found that 28% owned property elsewhere in India and resided in rented homes in Pune, which implies that only 17.3% of respondents owned their own residential property within the city limits. In addition, 10 men (13.3%) owned both a house and land. However, most respondents did not realise an increased income from rent or agriculture on land back home because, in most cases, the respondent’s remaining family resides in that property or grows produce and sells it to earn income for themselves, which eliminates any rent-earning prospective.

Some respondents blamed unfavourable climatic conditions in recent years as the driving factor which has destroyed cultivation and production of crops. Bhanumurthy & Kumar (2018) provide similar evidence, using data on average rainfall, which has been decreasing, and annual minimum temperature, which has experienced a relative increase across India, both factors contributing negatively to agricultural output. Pairing this with their additional findings like a general drop in productivity in agriculture and a higher frequency of adverse weather conditions, we get a hint why cobblers in and around Pune have become rural-urban migrants, leaving land without cultivation. The workplace was an asset possessed by only 2 men (2.67%), since most cobblers tend to work on roadsides or inside markets. Vehicles have also been considered as assets for the survey, since they can be used to garner funds from informal credit sources such as moneylenders or relatives by placing them as collateral. However, as expected among individuals with meagre income, only 2 respondents (2.67%) owned a scooter.

Household and Business Expenditure

Considering that most cobblers are migrants, one would expect very few to own some residential property within the city. Indeed, of all respondents, 61 men (81%) spent a considerable amount of money on rent each month. Since most of the progenies of the respondents were inducted into government-sponsored Marathi or semi-English medium schools, the majority did not have to spend any amount each month for educating their children. The Government of India, under the Right to Education Act of 2009, provides free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of 6–14 years, which helped in enhancing the spending power of most respondents. However, the government only waives the fees for schools, so that the respondents still had to spend money on books, stationery and other study materials. Out of the total sample, only 15 men (20%) needed to spend on their children’s education, mostly because these children were above the age of 14 and were inducted into higher secondary schools or universities for which fees are not waived. Only 3 young cobblers (4%) spent some money each month on their own education. These relatively young individuals, not more than 18 years old, assume to have the scope to diversify their job into other fields but had temporarily involved themselves in cobblering to support their education and current livelihood.

Since most cobblers run their businesses on the roadside, without any fixed structure to either sit inside or on top of, most men did not pay any form of rent. 9 interviewees (12%) paid rent to a private owner or the municipal corporation, which provides a form of stall to cobblers and other informal enterprise owners. These stalls have enough space for one person to sit in, and the individuals using these stalls must provide the local administration a small contribution at particular intervals within the year. Considering that cobblers largely utilise products that deplete with use, such as threads, needles, gum, adhesives, soles, laces and so on, they are obliged to spend, albeit only a small amount, each month to purchase these commodities. Due to the lack of infrastructure in most cases, there was no need to pay for ancillary services such as water or electricity. Only 7 men (9%) paid for electricity to run either a motor or a small bulb within their workplace.

Out of all respondents, 13 men (17.33%) reported spending less than ₹500 on rent, if required, and raw materials for their commerce. 17 men (22.67%) were spending between ₹500 and ₹1,000 on their business, and the same number of individuals from the sample were spending between ₹1,000 to ₹1,999 each month. Exactly 20% of respondents, 15 men, were spending somewhere between ₹2,000 and ₹3,999 each month to run their business. Only 13 interviewees (17.33%) were spending more than ₹4,000 each month. Unsurprisingly, out of those 13 individuals who were spending more than ₹4,000 per month, 12 men (92%) were earning more than ₹10,000 per month.

Income

The earnings of an individual are the most prominent determining factor of the person’s economic and social status. The incomes of cobblers, like the majority of the informal sector, especially self-employed persons, tend to be skewed towards the lower end of the spectrum. Only 5 individuals (6.67%) out of the sample of 75 earned less than ₹5,000 per month and just a little above two thirds of all respondents earned between ₹5,000 and ₹15,000 monthly. Specifically, 25 individuals (33.33%) earned between ₹5,000 to ₹9,999 each month and 27 interviewees (36%) earned anywhere between ₹10,000 and ₹14,999 every month. A relatively small proportion of 14 men (18.6%) managed to earn between ₹15,000 and ₹19,999, while an even smaller proportion of 4 cobblers (5.3%) earned above ₹20,000. In fact, these four individuals made ₹25,000, ₹31,000, ₹36,000 and ₹150,000 per month respectively. Generally, in Pune city, fresh college graduates and individuals with 1–5 years of work experience tend to earn such amounts. None of these individuals had more than 10 years of experience in the profession, and none of them was more than 35 years of age. It is astounding to find that despite not being well-educated or formally trained, certain individuals in this field have the potential to earn enough to live a middle-class life in Pune, which is almost a Tier-1 city of India.

The explanation for this is that younger individuals tended to make considerable use of information technology, listing their business on Google or selling locally crafted footwear, which enhanced their earning capabilities and closed the gap between the incomes of younger and older individuals in this profession. Tellingly, the lower end of the income spectrum maximally consisted of older individuals in the business. For example, out of the 12 individuals earning below ₹7,000 per month, 9 men (75%) were above the age of 35, while out of the 20 individuals that earned below ₹8,000 per month, 17 cobblers (85%) were below the age of 35. On the other hand, the upper end consisted of individuals of widely varying ages and did not only include either relatively older or younger individuals.

However, one cannot directly infer that the higher-earning individuals in the sample would directly enjoy higher living standards, because of other variables at play, such as their family size and the number of additional earning family members. Concerning our sample, we found that 36 of all respondents (48%) were the sole income-earning members of their families. Of the remaining 39 respondents (52%), 28 men (37%) had one other working member in their household, 7 men (9%) had another two members and only 4 men (5%) had three other family members who contributed to the family income.

Only 3 cobblers (4%) from our sample of 75 respondents were working in other roles to earn additional income. These three individuals were earning ₹4,000, ₹6,000, and ₹8,000 respectively from their additional sources, working as security guards during the night or as car-washers early in the morning. Most customer traffic occurs during the morning, when individuals tend to drop off their footwear for repair with a cobbler. The respondents then conduct their work and the repaired products are collected by the customers mostly in the evening. Thus, absence at the work-station due to a supplementary job during the day would not necessarily hurt the income directly. But in the long run, it would hinder the growth of the business and, hence, reduce income. This point is based on the assumption that cobblers would adopt supplementary jobs such as car-washing or newspaper delivery, which are undertaken during the peak customer rush hours for the profession.

We also inquired whether, loosely speaking, the respondents had noticed any positive or negative change in their incomes over the last 5 years or since starting their work as cobbler, if they started less than 5 years ago. 52% of all respondents reported having realised more of a decrease in income over time, while only 10 respondents (13%) said that they witnessed no change in their income level. However, 26 respondents (35%) reported an increase in their income realised from the profession in the last few years. Considering that the prices of their services have remained almost constant throughout the last decade, the decreasing incomes in most cases have been a consequence of declining demand for their services.

This noticeable decrease in demand can be attributed to the sharp penetration of e-commerce through the population of almost every income class in Pune, reflecting rising incomes among the entire population, the availability of cheaper products, better quality of footwear in the market, and greater purchases of footwear that simply cannot be repaired once torn or damaged. Thus, even though most cobblers may have set their customer base in their respective areas of operation and managed to gain the trust of customers, the number of customers who would repair their shoes rather than buy a new pair had decreased in most areas. However, this cannot be stretched as a generalisation for all cases, since some respondents also reported an increase in income.

Savings and Financial Inclusion

Savings as a means of sustenance in times of emergencies are critical in determining the long-term economic health of individuals and their families. An alarmingly high 57.3% of respondents, 43 men, reported having been earning just enough to satisfy the basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and education. However, we suspect that such individuals might have been able to save relatively small or insignificant amounts each month, but may not be keeping track of this. They may also have found it convenient to state that they were unable to save anything. Overall, only 15 individuals, 20% of the respondents, reported having been saving at least up to ₹1,000 each month. 8 men (10.6%) reported saving above ₹1,000 and less than ₹2,000 each month, while only 6.6% reported saving more than ₹2,000 and less than ₹5,000 each month. Only 4 individuals (5.3%) managed to save ₹5,000 or more per month; all of these individuals had monthly earnings of ₹18,000 or more.

However, the widespread lack of a reserve pool of funds is just the tip of an iceberg of problems with saving habits among these respondents. Surprisingly, we found that despite living in an almost Tier-1 urban settlement in India, only two thirds of all interviewees, 50 cobblers, possessed a bank account. Our result is even more dismal compared to the results of Bhattacharyay (2016) pertaining to the same variable of the proportion of unbanked respondents. That survey on the urban poor of Pune revealed that 62% of respondents were banked, so that our cobbler respondents seem even more backward in terms of financial inclusion than the average poor person in the city of Pune. This is a matter of concern, because a myriad of subsidies offered by the government are channeled in the form of monetary sums to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts directly via Aadhaar since the rollout of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Hence, several respondents cannot avail of those benefits. On a positive note, however, out of those 32 respondents (42.7%) who did save at least ₹1 on a periodic basis, 99% managed to stockpile those savings in a safer place, rather than hoarding cash at home.

The results from our survey pertaining to the reasons reported by respondents for the lack of savings and possession of savings accounts are very similar to those found by Sharma et al. (2019). The reasons reported by their respondents were lack of funds after expenses, lack of documentation such as birth certificates and Aadhaar cards, which are critical for opening accounts with banks, and also absence of trust in the banking system, which is quite paradoxical since we know that money is much safer in a bank account than at home. Our respondents reported these same reasons in addition to a lack of knowledge about documentation and formal procedures for obtaining a bank account, and also reported discrimination due to their financial status on the part of bank employees.

Merely 2 respondents (3%) had purchased healthcare insurance plans for themselves and this low adoption of insurance is almost in line with the trend in the broader informal and formal sectors of India (Kumar & Sarwal, 2021). During our survey, we also inquired about the preferred source of credit during emergencies by proposing a simple hypothetical ‘what if?’ emergency scenario to all respondents. This was done to assess their preference between formal credit from banks or any other financial institution and informal credit sources, such as family, friends, relatives or moneylenders. Only 12 respondents (16%) seemed to have a proclivity for formal credit for emergencies or even business expansion, while the remaining 63 respondents (84%) would opt for informal credit in any emergency scenario. This fact, paired with our earlier discussion pertaining to the lack of possession of bank accounts, clearly shows a lack of confidence in the banking sector among our respondents.

Seasonal Factors Inducing Income Volatility

Every single respondent reported a decrease in income during the monsoon season. However, the degree to which rains affected their respective monthly income varied depending on the locality in which they operated, the presence of overhead cover and alternative locations for work. For example, cobblers operating within markets were more likely to stop operations only temporarily, while those working at larger and more open roadside spaces would be forced to shut down for entire days. 15 respondents, one fifth of all cobblers interviewed, said they experienced between 81–100% loss in income due to rains. In fact, out of these 15 individuals, 14 reported a direct 100% drop in income during the 3–4 months of monsoon in Pune city. 22 individuals (29.3%) experienced a 21–40% decrease, 19 cobblers (25.3%) reported a 41–60% drop in income, 12 (16%) found a drop of between 61–80% and only 7 individuals (9.3%) reported a decrease of less than 20% during the rains. Since most cobblers are habituated to performing their work on the sides of roads without any overhead or underlying protection against water, the monsoons force them to either relocate temporarily elsewhere or halt their work completely if the pouring lasts all day.

Lack of Working Permits and Regional Development

Out of the entire sample, 66 respondents (88%) did not possess any form of license or permit allowing them to operate at their chosen location for work. Due to this, the respondents frequently reported being charged with fines by local authorities or asked to shut down their business, though temporarily in most cases. Nevertheless, the effects of such interventions remain pernicious, resulting in loss of working time and income. Another compounding problem here is that even if the respondents would like to apply for and obtain a work permit, it was found that they possessed almost no information about applying for and obtaining a permit. This resulted in a sticky situation, where even though the respondents would want to possess a permit, they could not do so. Another major problem, which had already occurred in the case of 3 respondents (4%) was displacement. At times, real-estate projects or other infrastructure developments pre-emptively force surrounding informal businesses to shut down or relocate. Displacement results not only in loss of a work-spot, but also one’s customer base. We learnt that the Pune Metro project had displaced all three affected respondents to either a nearby or a far-away locality, which essentially ruined their livelihood.

Statistical Analysis and Results

As noted, we utilised MLR to identify the relationships between variables such as age, experience and education with income. We constructed three different models, each of which was based on three different combinations of independent variables. The regressand was split into three categories based on the three income classes, namely lower (₹0– ₹6,999), middle (₹7,000–₹13,999) and high (₹14,000 and above). We found that none of the selected independent variables were responsible for increasing the probability of earning enough to be included in the middle-income class. Not even education, which is generally deemed to be a significant factor in advancing people upwards along the income ladder, had any discernible effect on individual incomes. Results from Agarwal (2011) provided some rationale as to why there appear to be almost no significant returns to education for our sample. He found that the returns to an additional year of education varied with the level of education under consideration, with returns at lower levels (primary and middle) being far lower than at higher levels (secondary, higher-secondary and graduate). As is evident from our earlier presentation of data pertaining to the educational attainment of respondents, the vast majority had been unable to complete even basic schooling and the majority had not progressed beyond middle school. Thus, when we pair the findings of Agarwal (2011) and our own, we gain greater clarity why education had an almost negligible effect on the incomes of our respondents.

One extremely unique and maybe confounding finding concerned the impact of age on income. We found that a higher age corresponded to a lower probability of having a higher income. This may have been since younger individuals in our sample, despite their lower level of formal education, were better acquainted with newer techniques, possessed greater knowledge about modern technology, such as access to the internet, were more productive, and were thus more adaptable than their older and conservative peers, allowing them to earn a better livelihood. In addition, the experience of individuals in terms of years within this field of work did not affect their incomes either. This goes against most notions pertaining to the correlation between years spent in a profession and monetary returns. Other much less salient factors which did not play a role in affecting the likelihood of higher earnings in this profession included migration, financial inclusion such as possession of a bank account, or preference for formal over informal credit, and the status of being the only bread-earning member in the family. Finally, we found that the probability of earning relatively higher incomes was somewhat affected by possession of land or a house either within Pune or anywhere in India. However, it was quite difficult to draw defensible intuitive understandings about this correlation on the basis of our interview results.

Exigencies

One matter which requires immediate concern is the efficacy of government schemes and provisions that are generally issued for the lower-income class. Only 10 respondents (13.3%) had applied under any government poverty alleviation initiative. We learnt that in most cases, the benefits of such schemes either did not reach the individual applicants or the process of application for availing benefits involved various complications, such as large time gaps between application and receipt of benefits, corruption, mismanagement and lack of coordination at government offices. Based on this, it is recommended that policy-makers and government officials ensure that the required details pertaining to the applications for government schemes should be effectively conveyed to the urban poor. Notably, 67 interviewees (89.3%) expressed the need for such information to be effectively disseminated.

As mentioned earlier, cobblering consists of activities generally carried out within markets or at roadsides, without overhead protection. Almost 75% of all interviewed individuals, 56 men, wanted the local government to make provisions for simple brick-and-mortar structures to run their businesses. Almost the same number of respondents, 53 men (70.6%) wanted the state or central government to issue formal permits to avoid frequent legal issues from the authorities. Finally, 22 respondents (29.3%) expressed the need for special loan facilities to be initiated to garner funds for repaying debts or for expansion of their current business capabilities. This exigency stems from the fact that cobblers, similar to the larger poor urban class, have insufficient access to the formal loan market and its products, due to either lack of collateral, substantial income or documentation.

Conclusions

Through this survey, we attempted to explore and analyse a relatively forgotten and ignored section of the larger overarching informal economy in urban India. The survey revealed that almost three-fourths of all cobblers were fairly uneducated and that the profession is almost hereditary, with the majority of respondents being trained and initiated into the profession by a family member. The absence of formal education along with the absence of skills development necessary for diversification into other fields has resulted in the profession being promulgated over time under the aegis of a community-focused and family-based line of work. Thus, individuals identified as cobblers have essentially been forced or channelled into this line of work due to established ‘traditional’ socio-economic compulsions. However, throughout the study, several unique cases were identified of men who had done rather well in this profession and managed to earn a relatively stable and substantial income.

Particularly, we found that there is a greater chance that the highest income class of cobblers consisted of younger individuals rather than older ones. The survey results also revealed some other confounding facts about individuals from this community. One such example is the lack of correlation between education and incomes of individuals from this community which is usually not the case for other workers in the formal or informal job market. Similarly, the non-existence of a clear correlation between relevant experience, in terms of years in this profession, and income is an additional aspect of this line of work which almost disputes traditional notions about the correlation between how long a person has been doing a job and their income. There also exists no direct interplay between income earned and the status of migration or ownership of a formalised working permit.

This study thus exemplifies the internal diversity and contradictory nature of certain parts of the informal economy, identifying that we cannot hope to draw policies that have ‘one size fits all’ characteristics. For cobblers, it is recommended that measures be taken immediately for providing three main tools to help them sustain their livelihoods, namely to secure a place to work, a permit enabling them to employ their skills freely to earn a living, and the provision of cheap credit. Finally, the study not only helped us discover this new community-based profession, but also shed light on what forms of further research can be done in this area. Future studies could focus on the history and evolution of the community and examine its cultural characteristics, which could not be explored in detail here. Studies could also replicate the methodology of our study in different parts of South Asia to gain a better understanding of the regional variations in the cobbler community’s characteristics.