Their children have flown the nest. Connectivity is only through the landline telephone. They were expecting the children in the Durga Puja where they would all be united---Children, daughter-in-laws, son-in-law, grandchildren. The phone rings. It’s their second son. He has transferred an amount of Rs.60, 000/- to his father’s account. May be a bribe from a son for the excuse of not meeting his parents for the last two years. Enough ---- they thought, we will live our life to the fullest. The old couple decided to go to their friend’s house at Kalna near Burdwan to have a feel of the autumn breeze and also to escape from the jaws of boredom and may be “the impending death”.
A break-in took place at the wee hours. The burglars took away cash and gold jewellery. The door and cupboard locks had been ripped off. The old couple had informed their neighbor before leaving for Kalna. The neighbour did his duty of calling the police and informing them of the incident. The old couple seems shaken but unbothered by the whole incident. May be they have now seen a new meaning in life.
I, as a dutiful neighbor, went to a hardware shop to buy some locks for the old couple so as to replace the broken ones. The locks were of different types starting from mainly padlocks, mortise locks, 2-in-one door locks…. Different mechanisms were used for locks like lever type, pin cylinder type etc. What struck me was the place of manufacture of these locks. All were from Aligarh except Godrej. Why? Why other towns or cities in India were not into lock business. Why did this lock manufacturing cluster developed in Aligarh? Why we always associate locks to Aligarh? Why Aligarh had become synonymous to locks? Was it a family tradition of expertise being carried out for generations and why were they the best in the business in terms of its affordability, design and utility?
This C tier city, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is roughly 130 kilometers, south-east of New Delhi. It has a population of about seven lakhs and is not only famous for its lock manufacturing and brass castings (sculptures) but also for Aligarh Muslim University. There are about 5 large lock manufacturers; 25-30 medium sized and more than a thousand small manufacturers. A lot of lock manufacturing work is carried out in Aligarh under job work system. There are only a handful of exporters in Aligarh. However, several Aligarh based lock manufacturers supply their locks to merchant exporters in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai as indirect exports. Some lock manufacturers supply their locks to hardware exporters who use the locks as part of their larger hardware shipments.
A utility item but business is carried out in an unorganized way. Without proper financial support the business is still being treated as a cottage industry. Almost the whole of Aligarh economy is directly or indirectly dependent on lock manufacturing. What prevents them from making it big? Aligarh lock manufacturer competition mainly comes from Godrej who are manufacturing hi-tech computer aided design locks with non-decodable keys that are generally high priced and out of reach for most of the people in India. May be the Aligarh lock manufacturers are helping billions of Indian households to procure locks at an affordable price to ensure safety of their “valuables” and peace of minds.
What makes this mature industry tick? The answer is that it effectively combines Chinese ‘Shan Zhai’ and Indian ‘Juggard’ principles to build and run the business without competition. This admirable combination sustains the industry and societies.
This is the sustainable business secret that unlocks the mystery behind the runaway success of the Indian manufacturing industries even in the most trying times – the key to unprecedented economic growth!
Sitendu De is the author of this post.
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