Shanti
Bai

Chor Bazaar (Thieves Market) is one of the largest flea markets in the city of Mumbai, trading in second hand, antique, fake and stolen goods. It is located in Bhendi Bazaar, South Mumbai and is bounded by Mohammad Shaukat Ali Rd. and S.V.Patel Road. The practice of setting up this market dates back to a 150 years. One can find original Bollywood posters, authentic Victorian furniture, replacement parts for automobiles, etc. M. S. Ali Road is also known for a particular kind of midnight market where women of the marginalised and nomadic Waghri community gather to sell discarded clothes at a cheap price.

Shanti Bai, a middle aged woman, travels every day from Panvel to Chor Bazar with a large bundle of used clothes. She lives in a small, two-room tenement with a toilet in one of the slums in Panvel. She specializes in selling used jeans pants to the recycling units in Kamathipura. Shanti bai is a Waghri woman and barters steel and plastic utensils for used clothes (which she collects from the residential neighborhoods of Mumbai). It is one of the oldest mechanisms of informal waste recycling in the city. She has been doing this work for 20 years to support her family.

Thus, Chor Bazar is an important node in the city through which the trash or waste of the city circulates and re-enters a secondary market, and the socially marginalised as well as poor women like Shanti Bai become important actors performing this valuable service. Even though Kamathipura has a negative reputation, Shanti Bai was of the opinion that, ‘Everything is organised. Sex workers do not disturb us. Agents do not come to us making unnecessary demands rather sometimes I get sex workers as customers. They buy clothes from us. I feel safe here. There is no problem. Do you see how many of us are here? We are more than 300 waghri women here on every night. We are here for our livelihoods, nobody has time for creating ruckus.’

However, the precarious nature of this clandestine market is not lost on Shanti Bai. In fact, she is acutely aware of the forces of real estate trying to change Chor Bazar and its surrounding areas.

‘Saukat Ali Kathawala ke hathon beekh gaya. Kharid liya usne. Yeh saare dukane jaane wale hai. Hum sab pata nahi kaha jayenge. Humlog waghri hai isiliye dukano mein jake maal bech sakte hai lekin usme bhi dikkat to hoti hai. Itna saman kaise utha ke leke jayenge? Dekhte hai Kathawala kya karta hai. Humare liye kuch nahi karenge kyun ki humlog toh raaste wale hai’.

It is rumored that the Kathawala family has owns a 7,000 sq. m. gala (shed), located between lane 5 and lane 13 of Kamathipura. Individual units within the gala were leased to around 200 small scale units and residences. However, Kathawala now wants to redevelop the area themselves and are willing to pay off these tenants handsomely.