Mumbai's
dirt gets cleaned at Dhobi Ghat
Around seven hundred and nine people are engaged in washing
the dirty linen of Mumbai, at one of the world's biggest open
laundry, that too at the heart of
Mumbai city. The great 'launderette', or the popularly known Dhobi
Ghat, is near Mahalakshmi station, where men are busy with
the laundry cleaning the dirt of Mumbaiites. Row upon row of concrete
wash pens, each fitted with its own flogging stone. The clothes are
soaked in sudsy water, thrashed on the flogging stones, then tossed
into huge vats of boiling starch and hung out to dry. Then they are
ironed and piled into neat bundles.
 Today,
for tourists, no trip to Bombay is complete without a visit to the
laundry - the dhobi ghat. Everyone is anxious to know, what happens
to their clothes, once given to the hotel staff. "This is
one of the unique feature of Mumbai, the dhobi ghat," says
Amana, one of the tourist from Russia. Almost all
the travel agencies enlist Dhobi Ghat as one of the tourist stopover,
Thomas Cook to SOTC. "We have not seen such a laundry,
where clothes are washed under no roof, its open to viewers. Thats
what surprises us the most," added Amana's tourist
friend.
 At
Dhobi Ghat, it is a traditional laundryman, who will collect your
dirty linen, wash it, and return it neatly pressed to your doorstep.
All for a pittance. They charge just Rs.10 per piece of cloth.
Isn't that really cheap compared to Rs.40, what we pay to the dry
cleaners. The dry cleaners pays the washerman, a fixed amount for
each cloth irrespective of the length and size, that is just Rs.3.
"All the clothes from the dry cleaner come to us only.
We wash them in our traditional manner, with soda and chemicals.
But when you go and collect it from them they charge for putting
the things meticulously inside a packet," said Unni
the washerman, who stays at the ghat with his wife and children.
Almost all the dhobis and their families work together in what has
always been a hereditary occupation, stay in small chawls, which
have been constructed inside the ghat.
 Here
a particular block which are constructed to wash clothes are owned
by a particular person, where only he or his employees can wash
clothes. If one is employed then he receives a salary of Rs. 2500
a month. Work at Dhobi Ghat begins with the first twilight of the
day, and depending on the number of clothes, which is in thousands,
work continues for hours, at times going on till evening.
It is amazing to notice that the clothes after being cleansed,
dried and ironed, returns to the right person. All the washerman
follows the system of marking the clothes they pick from the customer.
This marking avoids the clothes from changing hands. " At
times, we do misplace clothes, for that we have to pay the penalty,
to the customer," confied Rajan, the washerman from
Andhra Pradesh. According to him most of the washerman are
from Andhra and Bihar.
Mumbai is a place where the real estate prices is notoriously high,
and these dhobis are occupying a cream area at the heart of the
city. City's Municipal Corporation, charges them the bare minimum
rent for space, water, and electricity. They are provided with continuous
water supply for washing clothes. Every month the money for payment
of the municipal bills are accumulated from all the owners of ghats
and then handed over to the State Government.
Author's Name : Sharmistha
Chakraborty
Photographer : Vinayak Prabhu
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1:35:25 PM 
