Twelve jersey-printing artisans who worked for decades inside Kolkata’s old Maidan Market say they have been left without space in the new market complex being built for traders displaced by construction of the Esplanade Metro station.
The old Maidan Market is being closed to facilitate the metro project, while 528 stall owners have been allotted space in the new BC Roy Market complex, according to the artisans cited in a report by the Times of India. The printers say they were excluded because they did not operate from formal stalls, despite having worked from small units and passages inside the market for years.
The artisans are known to sports fans for printing names, numbers and logos on jerseys and sweatshirts, including the names of footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. They say the work has provided their families with a livelihood for decades.
Angad Das, 36, told the Times of India that he had been printing jersey names, logos and numbers since the 2000s. He said the market committee had indicated during negotiations that arrangements would be made for the printers, but they were informed that no space was available when the final shift began.
“It is not that we have sprung up out of nowhere. All of us had been running our businesses from inside the market for decades and we have a lot of people coming to us,” Das said, requesting space from Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) and other authorities involved in the relocation.
Istak Ahmed, 51, said he had worked inside the old market for more than three decades. He told the newspaper that the 12 printers were not seeking individual stalls but only a designated area within the new structure. Since they had never held formal stalls, the artisans appear to have fallen outside the group that received space in the new complex, although the supplied report does not detail the allotment criteria or the authorities’ formal position on their exclusion.
The relocation has immediate consequences for the artisans’ households. Ahmed said his son is due to sit for the Madhyamik examination next year and his daughter for the Higher Secondary examination. He also supports his mother and homemaker wife. Das said the earnings from his work support his four-year-old daughter’s schooling and his household, which includes his homemaker wife.
The dispute highlights a recurring administrative problem in market redevelopment: workers who depend on a commercial space but do not hold conventional stalls or formal allotment documents can be left out of relocation plans. In this case, the market’s formal traders have received space in the new complex, while the artisans say their long-standing presence and customer base have not been recognised in the same way.
The printers have appealed to RVNL and other authorities for a place in the new market complex. The report does not state whether the authorities have announced a decision on their request or whether a formal rehabilitation mechanism exists for the 12 businesses.
