Week 12 to Week 14 – Questionnaire

The group had to make a questionnaire on the based of our visit to Dadar. Here is the first draft of our questionnaire:

1. Why is there no traffic signal in the main Kabutarkhana chowk?
2. Why isn’t there a proper provision of sidewalk for the foot traffic?
3. Are the installations placed in the middle of the roads, the cause of the traffic congestion?
4. Why is there such a big wood and metal market there?
5. Is there a religious influence on the market?

This was the questionnaire constructed on the basis of our judgement, notability, and mindset on the visit. We pointed out the facts of Dadar area being crowded to no extents. And then when it comes down to the Kabutarkhana Chowk in Dadar. Numerous people are just walking in their own directions without any defined paths for them to walk on while on the same time there is this huge on going traffic without any signals involving all sorts of vehicles which could actually be dangerous for the ones on foot. While the tragedy here is that they themselves don’t bother about this issue when this is not something that should be ignored this easily.And then we had some questions running through our head on the market of Dadar for why it being so major for metal and wood. And lastly, Dadar is a place in Mumbai where obviously people of all sorts of religions, cast and creed reside. So, when it comes down to business, is the huge famous market of Dadar influenced by the religious differences that prevail in every part of our country?

After presenting the first draft our questionnaire to Malvika ma’am, she suggested us certain changes to improvise the questionnaire to make it more about the place in depth. Instead of just constructing our questions on what we saw and noticed at the time of the visit, we should rather go into the depth of the processing and working of the market and the struggling life on vendors and how they manage their daily errands. So here is our final draft for the questionnaire:

1. Why did you (vendors) choose the Dadar market to sell your produce?
2. Why is there such a large wood, timber, metal and stainless steel market here?
3. Do you think the installation of signage would help more to navigate through the area?
4. Where do you (vendors) get their produce from?
5. How do you (vendors) deal with the excess leftover produce?
6. How do you manage the inflamed business during the festival season, while simultaneously handling the everyday rush?

At first when it came down to questioning the Dadar market, all of us had hit quite the basics and not thought about the background and things we not see but still appear to be there. The visit was quite messy with all the crowd, the smell and the sun but getting into things and triggering our minds made us see beyond the picture of Dadar.

After figuring out the final questions we had to question them to the people of Dadar. As it was expected, many of the vendors and sellers didn’t bother to answer our questions because they were quite busy in their daily errands but some of them, a few took out time to answer us. We have compiled the final answers to the questionnaire on the basis of all the answers collected. Here is the final compilation:

1) Why did you choose Dadar to sell your pro- duce?
Dadar is close to home. It is literally the heart of Mumbai. People cross through here day and night, and hence business is always steady.

2) How is such a huge amount of flower produce managed and sold?
Flowers are sold in the market by weight, number and length. No matter the amount, the produce is all swallowed up by wholesalers and retailers. Dadar is, after all, the central area from where produce is supplied to other markets.

3) Do you think signages would help navigate the area more efficiently?
The area is so crowded that asking someone would be more convenient. Signages are fine but due to the lack of space, time and awareness, they wouldn’t be of much use. A majority of the crowd are frequent travelers who know the ins and outs of 16 the place.

4) Why is there such a huge textile industry here?
During the cotton mill era of Mumbai, some key mills, like Bombay Dyeing, Ruby Mills and Tata Mills flourished here, which started this trade.

5) How do you deal with the excess leftover pro- duce?
It is sold at a discounted rate. We have been in this business for several decades; almost 3-4 gen- erations too! It is easy to predict how much pro- duce will sell.
*While we explored the Dadar area, we also no- ticed rotten groceries being thrown away or dis- carded.

6) How do you manage business during peak season, like festivals?
Business is crazy during festivals and wed- dings, especially since Dadar and Parel itself have major temples. When it comes to huge orders, these are taken 3-4 weeks in advance and sale is planned accordingly. Goods pertaining to the festi- val sell faster than regular commodities, hence these are kept out front.