Artisans Rahul Dattatrey Gorey and Kalamudeen Ansari stitch new recycled rubber bags for ‘Chamar Studio’ by designer Sudheer Rajbhar.
As members of the Dalit caste, formerly known as untouchables, life has always been a struggle for India’s leather workers, who are largely Hindu Chamars or Muslim. Then he had to convince the community, with many craftsmen fearing the potentially incendiary – and loss-making – implications of marketing a luxury product with lower-caste associations.
The use of rubber instead of leather meant that virtually every step — from the cutting to the stitching — needed to be performed by hand rather than with sewing machines. Sakhare started working on Mumbai’s crowded pavements as a 13-year-old when his father, also a cobbler, was killed in a hit-and-run accident.“The caste system has created so much discrimination that people just don’t respect certain types of work,” said Sakhare, who used to earn 400 rupees a day as a cobbler.