Mumbai, April 2 -- There is stoic resignation in Baban Ram's voice. "I've been sitting at this same spot for the last 32 years. If it's someone else in my place tomorrow, it won't matter to the customers but this is what has helped me raise my five children. At 51, where else am I expected to go?" At the mouth of the local train platforms at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), the beating heart of Mumbai's suburban railway network, Ram and others who form the Bombay Shoeshine Workers Co-operative Society (BSWCS), are seated on the grey tiles armed with their toolkit of a box, a shoe anvil, shoe polish, cream, shoe brushes and kapda, awls, shoe-laces, soles, and spools of waxed thread. At their stations by 7 am daily, 22 men like Baban kitted in navy blue uniform, have played a vital role in putting the shine on many an officegoer. But now BSWCS is preparing to go to the Supreme Court. On March 18, the Bombay High Court dismissed their challenge to the Central Railway's 2018 Shoe Shine Licence Policy. The policy mandates allocating licences through an open bidding process instead of the earlier practice of granting them to specific co-operative societies like the BSWCS. Upholding the policy, the court said inviting open tenders ensures transparency, openness and fairness. Sonu Kumar, 30, who has been shining shoes near Platform no. 4 for over a decade, differs with the court order. He left his village in Bihar to come to CSMT and take over his late father's shoe-shining spot. He holds a master's degree in history from the Veer Kunwar Singh University in Ara, Bihar. His father Shivnath Ram, he says, had been shining shoes since 1962, soon after former railway minister Jagjivan Ram formalised the shoe shining trade at railway stations to provide livelihood to the poorest in the society belonging to scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST). "We are still opposed to the tender system. This could mean someone else could take over these spots that our members have been occupying for decades. Someone like me can still go and find employment elsewhere but where will our senior members go? They are still fit to do this work, they still support families but if someone else bags the tender, they will have to wrap it all up. How will they sustain themselves?" BSWCS is one of 12 societies of shoe shiners that have been licensed by the railways to practice their trade at suburban railway stations in Mumbai. BSWCS has 35 members at CSMT, Masjid, and Sandhurst Road railway station. "Many of us live in Mankhurd with our families and some live much further away in places like Ambernath and Vangani," says Sonu. But while BSWCS challenged the policy in court, other societies of shoeshine workers too are opposed to the tender system, said Deepak Kalingan, National General Secretary of the Janrashtriya Railway Shoeshine Kamgar Union. "There is no society of shoeshine workers that is happy about the tender process. Everyone wants that the societies of workers that have been operating at the stations allotted to them, should continue to work there as it had been done traditionally," said Kalingan. He added that there are rivalries within the 12 societies as well and if one bags the tender for railway stations allotted to someone else, it may cause problems. Decades after Bollywood shone a light on shoe shiners in films like Boot Polish and Deewar, the trade remains largely unchanged. Except for payments via QR codes, BSWCS members said the cream, the polish and even their methods haven't evolved dramatically. Kalingan said that while societies of workers are expected to pay a monthly fee to the railways depending on the number of their members, on an average, each worker contributes Rs.50 of his daily earnings to the railways. The central railway administration, however, is not in favour of the "monopolies" that thrive on account of shoeshine societies cornering some stations. In an affidavit of March 3, 2022 submitted to the High Court in the petition filed by BSWCS, T Sushma, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of Central Railway had stated, "If the license of existing societies is kept renewed for years together, the other societies will never get any opportunity of their livelihood." This, she said, would deprive them of their right to equal opportunity. BSWCS could participate in the open tender like any other society, she said. "Renewal of existing societies would lead to monopolies and may also lead to corrupt practices. Allotment of contracts through an open tender system would be more transparent than the renewal of existing society," the central railway said in court. According to the central railway, the objective of the earlier policy as well as the 2018 License Policy, was to generate opportunities for persons belonging to lower strata of the society. Though the earlier policy contained a preference to be given to societies substantially or fully made of SC and ST members, this was done away by a circular of 2006. The railway's lawyers told the court that the shoeshine contract could be awarded to those societies "whose members are from weakest of weaker section of society, which may include general as well as SC or ST community." Jairam Ram, 71, is among the senior members that Sonu is concerned about. "I come from Vangani every day. I started shining shoes in 1988. This is how I have supported my family all these years. There is no other work I can do," he rues even as the shoe brush in his hand moves swiftly in perfected strokes on a leather shoe that appeared to have survived the city's dug-up roads. Jairam's customer Vinay Khatoo, a corporate trainer, wanted to do right by his brown brogues before boarding a train at CSMT on a Monday afternoon. "There is wax that people keep in offices, you know. But that will never give you a shine like this," says Khatoo. He is unaware of the shoe shiners' peeve about the 2018 licence policy but he agrees that their presence at CSMT counts....