The Hindu Business Line : Pavement entrepreneur battles on…

Mumbai, Aug. 16 People stare at Sunanda as she stands with her back to the wall of the UTI Bank compound with an array of newspapers and magazines surrounding her and approach her with some apprehension. As they ask for their daily dose of newspaper, they get jolted when she answers in perfect English, “The paper is over today. Sold. You should have come earlier.”

Sunanda Gopal Mokashi, 47, completed her M.A. in Marathi and English from Ferguson College, Pune, and a diploma in Business Management with a course in typewriting from Pune Government College. Today, she sells newspapers on a South Bombay pavement and spends two hours every day protesting at Azad Maidan for a job. She has undertaken countless hunger strikes and demonstrations with stones, folded hands, bells, cry of zohar mai-baap zohar (salaam in Marathi), and so on. She has been pleading for a job and a place to stay in Mumbai for the past 14 years now.

Her first job was with the Pune Mahila Arthik Vikaas as an accountant for 10 years. “Due to extreme corruption, I left the job and went to Swami Vivekananda’s Sevashram in Benaras to work for the public hospital there,” Sunanda said. But ill health forced her to return to Maharashtra where she began her visits to the Mantralaya.

Every day, she used to meet different Ministers from the departments of women and child welfare, social welfare, and so on. Her repeated pleas in the Mantralaya went unheard by successive governments and she started her first strike on March 13, 1993, with many others, following the advice of the Cuffe Parade police personnel.

Sunanda was offered jobs as a clerk, a teacher and a maid with government institutions, but with subsequent changes in the State Government, her job would be taken back from her and her file would go under review. When offered to sweep the streets and clean toilets, she decided to become an entrepreneur and started selling newspapers at the very place where she had gone on countless protest strikes.

“At that time I did not know the footpath culture, but time and all sorts of experiences, which I cannot bring myself to talk about, have taught me to survive here,” she said. Her domain being a prime location, other vendors tried to remove her from the place. “They gave bribes to the police and so nobody bothered them. I being a lonely woman, had to plead and fight with them to protect my territory,” she said. Her business does not run smoothly.

According to her, she hardly earns Rs 20 per day, but her average daily earnings cannot be more than Rs 75 to Rs 100. She faces opposition on a daily basis from many counters, especially from the salesmen. “The Mid-Day salesperson used to mock my knowledge of English. The Times group salesman used to throw paper balls at me and also broke my crutch when I fractured my leg. I complained to the human rights people and since then he has stopped supplying me with the Times group papers,” she gives examples of her troubles with her fellow businessmen.

“She has been selling papers here since the past 10 years, and it is not easy,” says Pandey, a vendor in Churchgate. “The rush in the morning for collection of newspapers is terrible and she being a woman, it’s worse for her,” he added.

But Sunanda does not want to give up. “I do not like begging and so started selling papers,” she said, explaining why she continues and has accepted the one room the government allotted to her. The room at Antop Hill is bereft of any provisions of water, electricity or bathroom.

Her story has appeared in countless newspapers and Prince Charles has also sympathised with her in a letter, but to no avail. “I get my strength from my guru Swami Vivekananda and though I am a lonely woman, I will fight for justice. I will now meet Pratibha Patil when she comes to Mumbai,” she adds, hoping that this time, perhaps, she will get a job befitting her qualification.

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