Discovering Dhobhi Ghat as a System
Our attempt to understand Systems Thinking got us to look at the Dhobhi Ghat in Mumbai — the largest open-air laundromat in India. This read elaborates into how this ecosystem survives in Mumbai. This project was undertaken by Arpita, Shraddha and myself.
The Hindi word ‘Dhobhi’ refers to a person in washing business, and ‘Ghat’ refers to a location. This 160-year-old dhobhi ghat (the place where clothes are washed) is Mumbai’s biggest human-powered washing machine: every day hundreds of people beat the dirt out of thousands of kilograms of soiled Mumbai clothes and linen in 1026 open-air troughs. The annual turnover of the Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat at around Rs 100 crore. The Ghat is a heritage industry, which means that the city authorities look for different ways to promote the system.
Mahalakshmi Station, closest to the Ghat has murals of washermen washing and drying clothes. The open-air laundromat has reduced in size, over the years, but the spirit of the workers is still on a roll. Recognition platforms such as this one help in keeping the workers pepped up, finding pride in their work, no matter how their work is looked at.
Of course, the first step was to research before heading to the Ghat, so we read online (secondary research..) and prepared a long list of questions for the people we thought were involved in this process — dhobhis, helpers, detergent suppliers, and families staying in the area. This not only guided us but also helped us stay rooted to points of concern we believed were essential to our research. Believe me, a tour of the Ghat would actually get you excited to jump in the water and give things a shot! Of course, we contained our excitement with some hot Chai and chitchat with the workers as they ironed clothes.
Primary Research followed preparing a systems map, linking the multiple stakeholders and their involvement in this ecosystem.
This Systems Map connects all the dots from the Mahalakshmi laundromat — people and industries involved, work done by them, the raw materials used, costs, and whatnot — these links are interdependent and changes at different stages can affect the overall system. A detailed Systems Map, supplemented with data, can be broken down to analyze the ecosystem so much better.
The next step was to look for patterns in the data we found — Causal Loop Diagrams, Behaviour over Time groups, and the Iceberg Model were some of the tools we tried looking at—
1. CLDs look at how changes in quantifiable variables could, in fact, cause changes for another variable — balancing or reinforcing the flow of the aspects in the loop. For example, an increase in rent by the government could increase or decrease man hours put in, to supplement the rise in expenditure by the Dhobhi, in turn affecting the number of clients, along with changes in the rates of ironing and washing (this being one of the most obvious loops, sorry.)
2. BOTGs look at changes in behavior patterns over time, helping frame patterns which are interrelated, but not easily visible. (Surprisingly, we could not identify any specific BOTGs — do let me know in the comments if you could think of something.)
3. The Iceberg model by Peter Senge is exactly what an iceberg looks like — a part visible is smaller and has roots going deep underwater. Events or incidents happen, which are outward and easily visible. A look into the trends gets us to understand the structures or influences that seem to have given rise to such structures. Based on these, one can identify mental models which can be placed to be the real cause(s,) behind the event that was visible at the surface. (This one, I shall be writing about, soon — inputs are welcome.)
Close to 7000 people stay in the Mahalakshmi Dhobhi Ghat — each involved in flogging, scrubbing, dying and bleaching clothes on concrete wash pens and drying them on ropes. Every morning at around 4 am, for the last 160 years, more than 500 dhobis and their helpers head out to different parts of the city, to collect clothes to wash and iron. Traveling in the local, on their independent vehicles, or even in buses, these collectors use fabric paint to number the clothes, ensuring every house has a unique code, followed by the code of laundry-man. Once the clothes are numbered, the washing process begins in machines which can wash around 90kg of clothes/wash — running for at least an hour and a half, each time. The Municipal Corporation limits water supply in the area from 5 am to 8 am — that is 3 hours to get done with washing. Once the numbering is done, the process of washing begins, with detergents from the local soap seller selling soap bars in kgs — depending on the type of clothes being washed the detergent is purchased almost every morning.
Even drying as a process is interesting to look at — clothes are intertwined two parallel ropes tied between two houses at the Ghat. Once the clothes dry, they’re ironed and then sent out for delivery, anywhere between 2 pm to 4 pm. Afternoons follow football for the men living in the area.
There are smaller dhobhi-ghats operating in the city, but pricing is said to be controlled by an unidentified body of senior dhobis at Mahalakshmi — establishing a union of sorts, an informal one.
This also got us to look at the laundromats in Guwahati, Malaysia, and Singapore — each operating from the early 1900s, now with a receding number of launders and polluted water sources. Current generations have in fact changed professions, making Mumbai the largest open-air laundromat.
Our research was also driven to understand if the ecosystem faced issues and if those issues could be solved with solutions that we could work on. From our initial understanding, it was established by the Dhobis and the workers that water scarcity was not a problem for them — which meant misuse was an absolute possibility, diverting us to look at ways to reuse water, or to change the behaviour of the dhobis, getting them to understand the global challenges associated with water, in turn, problems they could also face in the future, or look at medical issues caused by water stagnancy, or water-borne diseases. NOTE that half knowledge is dangerous, and jumping to assumptions to build prototypes, even worse. Attempts were made to build prototypes for both these challenges. The research visits followed preparing a deck with problem areas and solutions, and in fact prototypes of solutions as well.
However, we still had sets of stakeholders we needed to talk to — the workers union, and BMC — the Bombay Municipal Corporation. Surprisingly, things simplified after spending some time at the office in Lower Parel — water was timed (5am-8am), weekly DDT sprays, established waste management systems, regular health checkups, and marginalized rent, among other benefits. So, back to zero — what now?
A major Systems Thinking tool is to keep zooming in and out at different stages to make sense of the system and understand its importance — which is exactly what we did. You see, this ecosystem has faced its set of ups and downs, and is still fetches more than a 100 crore, annually, with support from the government and the city, both. It has evolved over the years. A macro view helps to understand that some systems need no touching, i.e., need no intervention, unless asked for. Some systems function just fine. :)
We got back to looking at the system, seeing how a three-hour water supply works well to tend to kilos of clothes every day, catering to not just households, but hospitals, hotels, clothing brands, amongst other industries. It is commendable that people have been working at the laundromat for years — grandfathers, fathers, sons, and daughters. And even though the numbers have reduced, the launders hold their customers with pride — to have served generations of families.
Talking to more than 50 dhobhis in the laundromats at Mahalakshmi at Santa Cruz got us closer to understanding how this lot utilized water way better than most of us, and a reaffirmation to them for their work well done would, in fact, encourage them further. Our research ended with putting up posters around the Ghats, not for Dhobhis, but everyone else with a simple reflection on water usage.
A few months later, RIN came up with a campaign which highlighted the fact that Dhobhis were able to save water, and so even we should check our usage. This came as a reassurance for us — while our work was in no way related to this campaign, but we did hit the right spot with our research! :)
Let’s talk Systems — drop a comment and we could dive deeper into this approach. And if you wish to know more about the Ghat, write about that too, would be great to see if we left something out. ❤
