In a nondescript lane off Agra Road in Aligarh, Rajiv Agrawal is talking animatedly on his mobile phone about a consignment of locks that needs to be delivered in the next two days. Conversation over, Agarwal, former president of the Aligarh Lock Manufacturers and Traders’ Association and director of Plus Point Buildsware, an Aligarh-based company that makes locks and lock components, apologises for keeping us waiting. “With the financial year closing, everyone is in a hurry to get their orders,” he explains.
Fiddling with his Samsung Galaxy Note, middle-aged Agarwal looks every bit the successful businessman. His family has been in the locks business for the last 70 years — his father had set up the company’s first lock-manufacturing unit before Independence. Agrawal and his brother continued the business, branding their products under the name, Plus Point, in 1995 and expanding their product range to include furniture and automobile locks. Around five years ago, the Agrawals got into hardware as well.
“At one point Aligarh supplied 95 per cent of the locks in India,” Agarwal says with pride. But that was some time ago and while Aligarh remains India’s biggest lock-making hub, the industry is clearly in decline. Estimated to be around Rs 900-crore (including brass components), Agarwal says it is declining at around 15 per cent a year. Exports, which until five years ago constituted about 40 per cent of the turnover, now only make for 25 per cent. “A lot of factors are to blame,” says Agarwal, a note of dejection creeping into his voice, “The lack of technological know-how, the onslaught of Chinese locks which are around 40 per cent cheaper than those made here, and increasing labour problems are some of them.”
Agarwal does not name it, but there’s one other factor obstructing the growth of the lock industry — its absolutely unorganised nature. For instance, all the above numbers about the size of the industry, the pace of degrowth, etc are what the manufacturers give out and cannot be independently substantiated because no figures are systematically collated. Even the District Industries Centre, the government body supposed to oversee the sector, does not put out any figures on the size or state of the lock industry, which is one of the principal sources of livelihood in Aligarh.
According to the District Industries Centre records, there are about 1,100 registered lock-manufacturing units in Aligarh. Among them are large, corporate players like Godrej Locks and Link Locks but a majority of these are very small units with sometimes as few as four workers. Few of these are registered by DIC, because the owners don’t want to take on the hassle of doing the rounds of government offices, or pay taxes that registration would require. “There are actually around 12,000 units,” says Agarwal, “if you include these small “units” run out of homes. Mostly, they make the components that go into locks and do good business,” he says.
* * * * *
More From This Section
The lock industry of Aligarh was established nearly 130 years ago when a company called Johnson and Co. started importing locks from England to sell in Aligarh. After it shut down some decades ago owing to labour troubles, several of its employees started their own manufacturing units. Over the years Aligarh evolved into a cluster for lock making, and now employs over 200,000 people.
The beginning of the decline, says Surendra Mohan who runs Supra Locks, a small-scale unit, was sometime in 1998 when automobile locks stopped being made in Aligarh. The manufacturers just didn’t have the technical know-how to make locks for the new range of cars being made and sold in India. “Traders didn’t realise the role of technology then and are now paying the price,” he says.
* * * * *
On the outskirts of Tala Nagri, Ajay Sharma’s bungalow doubles up as his office and his residence. All the talk of a slump is a bit hyped he says. “Small players like me haven’t been affected much,” he says. “As long as you keep the workers happy and meet market demand, it’s fine.” Ironically, Sharma says, Chinese locks have opened the eyes of Aligarh lock-makers, who were “stuck in the routine [key-lock] business”, to newer innovations and technologies. “Technology will drive this industry forward, just like other facets of life,” Sharma says admiring his new iPhone 4S. There are two more smartphones lying on his desk.
Sharma’s office is a cluttered space, separated from the rest of the factory by a glass partition through which he can look into the floor and keep tabs on the 50 workers he employs. About 160 operations go into making a lock, Sharma explains, showing us around his factory.
Most of the lock industry workers in Aligarh have been have been working in the sector for generations. “In Aligarh, every third house will have someone working in the lock industry,” says Sharma. Most have no specialised training, and simply learn on the job. Full-time employees are paid on average Rs 6,000 a month, while those on contract get around Rs 4,500.
That was fine until a few decades ago. But these days with greater mobility, workers have access to many more, and better paying options. Shambhu, a worker in Sharma’s factory, says that making locks is the only thing that he knows. “I learnt it from my father but I am not sure if my son will take up after me,” he says. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, says Sharma, has created problems for the lock industry. “Earlier there were people queuing up outside factories for jobs. But now they earn more under MGNREGS and they don’t even have to work!”
* * * * *
Tala Nagri is a five-square kilometre area, 10 km away from Aligarh city that the government developed in 1992 where it wanted to relocate all lock-making units. This was a move to control pollution, as Tala Nagri would have common effluent plants. But barring a few large and medium-sized units, Tala Nagri has not really found as many takers as the government would have wanted. For one, the micro units run out of homes are comfortable in their present location and do not want to move. Then, only registered units can move to Tala Nagri and most small-scale units want to avoid the hassle of getting their registration done. Sharma, however, is moving his unit here by the end of this year. “There’s no electricity problem here unlike other areas of Aligarh,” he explains.
Aligarh’s lock-makers complain about the lack of support from the government. For instance, the government-promised training centre for workers hasn’t come up, says Mohan. The manufacturers also feel that they are made to face too many bureaucratic clearances — just to get the date of manufacturing on the packaging requires several inspections, which are at times unnecessary. “We don’t want to take shortcuts but it will be better if the process of getting clearances is made simple,” says Agrawal of Plus Point.
Manufacturers have also been adversely affected by the rising costs of brass, zinc and copper, used to make locks. An estimated 100 tonnes of brass and 50 tonne of zinc alloy, used to dye cast the locks, is consumed daily in Aligarh. And though there’s enough demand, rising costs have shrunk margins, traders complain.
* * * * *
While most manufacturers (barring a few owners of small-scale units) are Hindu, a majority of workers are Muslim. Traders say that Muslims are experts at certain tasks. For instance, 80 per cent of the workers who dye cast locks are Muslim. Communalism, however, say traders, has never been a problem in the industry. “The economy of the city survives on this industry and we haven’t faced any religion based problems,” says Mohan. Banks, too, have been helpful, says Sharma, denying media reports of discrimination in loan disbursements against Muslim manufacturers. Tellingly, however, none of the factories in Tala Nagri — which has the reputation of being a “Hindu dominated area” — are run by Muslims.
Aligarh’s lock manufacturers know that communalism is not something they need to worry about — the lack of innovation is. “We need to learn how to innovate and adapt to changing times with technology,” says Agrawal, who also mentors upcoming manufacturers. Already some of the larger Indian manufacturers have introduced electronic locks in the market. But technology has moved ahead with biometric locks which can scan finger impressions. These are available in India and gaining a market. Aligarh’s lock industry must catch up with these fast changing trends if it is to survive.
