A dhobhi ghat (where the traditional washermen and women go to wash clothes), busy as ever, stands hidden behind the wall of a high-rise commercial complex in the heart of Delhi’s elite market, Connaught Place.

Here in Hailey Lane, close to the historic, centuries-old Agrasen ki Baoli, young Ankit stands in knee deep water in a tub, hitting and rinsing a huge pile of bed sheets, quilt covers and towels.

A student of Class XII, Ankit had to discontinue his studies and get engaged in this washing business to take care of seven members of his family after his father died early this year.

It was his grandfather who had come to Delhi years ago looking for work, from Nangora village in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. The family never went back.

Over 60 men who migrated, mostly from UP, almost five decades ago were provided with space for washing and drying clothes in the early 1970s when the place looked like a jungle, says washerman Munnabhai.

He and many others like him live and work here by themselves and send home the earnings to their families in the village.

“We do the washing, drying, ironing and delivering of linen for just ₹3 to ₹4 per piece,” says the 48-year-old. While he does the washing manually, others have managed to buy community washing machines and earn a fat sum.

Some of them cycle many miles to fetch laundry from far-off residential colonies, the lucky ones wash the linen of government houses or hotels in the vicinity.

“I can only manage to do 70 pieces a day for a hotel that fetches me between ₹10,000 and ₹12,000 a month. Munnabhai says a lot of the cash is spent on educating his children and inputs for a small land holding he has in village Purthiaanwa in Unnao district.

To save on food expenses, he brings grain from home that lasts him for up to six months at a time.

Rajpal from Takiatardhini village says he is able to earn between ₹20,000 and ₹25,000 a month, barely enough to educate his children. “My college-going son wants to become a lawyer and I hope he will not have to slog like me.” His younger brother Shivpal failed the Class IX exam and was left with no choice but to fall back on their traditional work of washing clothes.

Mounting expenses

However, washing clothes is not such a lucrative vocation. Input costs have gone up, but clients are not willing to shell out more.

Last year, the Delhi Government had waived off their piled-up arrears of water charges, but they know that this may not happen again.

“We want to improve our condition, but this comes with a price that we cannot afford. Also, people from other castes are now taking up this work, which was once the exclusive domain of our community. Our space is shrinking,” laments Rajpal.

On the one hand jobs come hard, on the other hand the community finds it difficult to return to their villages.

Their children, the new generation born in Delhi, have got used to the city life, but middle-aged people like Munnabhai would like to return to the village.

“My heart is in my village where I love to walk in the midst of green fields. Here there is not much pleasure working and living in a small congested room with no open spaces. But there is no way out, I have to earn a living,” he says.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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