Kalpana Saroj, the new chairperson of Kamani Tubes Limited (KTL), is a Dalit, a school dropout, a Bombay slum-dog who worked for Rs. 2 a day to keep hunger at bay. This gritty lady has taken on the job of nursing this sick manufacturer of non-ferrous tubes back to health. The company was owned by the Kamani family.
A Dalit taking over a company like KTL, with its links to the early years of India’s industrial development has its significance. In 1988, a unique experiment hailed as path-breaking, KTL was handed over to its workers, who turned owners. Sadly that experiment failed says the Outlook Business Magazine, May 2, 2010.
Saroj, who hails from Akola, had her first brush with Bombay’s shanties when she moved to the city as a child bride, at age 12. She abandoned the alliance and was taken back to her village. Driven to despair by her wretched circumstances, she attempted suicide, but survived.
Saroj still remembers the casteist slurs hurled at her by established businessmen. She entered the business in 1995 when she managed to clear encroachments and other claims on a piece of land. She bought the land with Rs. 5 lakhs saved up from the almirah business. In 1997, with the help of institutional finance, Saroj erected a residential and commercial complex at a cost of Rs. 4 crore, and sold it for a tidy profit. Subsequently she continued to ride the realty boom.
Along the way, she dabbled in the sugar industry, buying a stake in the Sai Krupa Sakhar Karkhana in Ahmednagar, and becoming a director on the board. She could do this as she had nurtured influential political benefactors, cutting across party lines. She had in fact cut her teeth in befriending politicians and the bureaucrats when she worked with hords of unemployed in Bombay. Saroj claims to have helped channelise over Rs. 1.8 crore to these youth through numerous government schemes for self-employment activities. “My best capital has always been the people around me”, she says.
Her detractors say the means she adopts are often unethical. They charge her with manipulating the system for benefit through her powerful political and bureaucratic patrons.
“She is an interloper who has wormed her way into KTL for its real estate. I wonder whether she is keen on doing anything worthwhile to resuscitate the company”, says Thankappan. Saroj scoffs at the suggestion and says the company does not own any land other than a four acre plot in Bangalore. Kamani Chambers is on lease from the Mumbai Port Trust.
