Traditional washermen in Mumbai have been washing clothes in the world's biggest outdoor laundry in Mumbai for well over 100 years.
But developers are closing in on the land around the Dhobi Ghat heritage site, in a city where land is scarce.
Our correspondent Rebecca Bundhun reports from Mumbai
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The sound of clothes being scrubbed is relentless in the Dhobi Ghat in Mumbai.
Hundreds of washermen, or dhobis, in the outdoor laundry – built by the British in the 1880s - are at work, washing clothes by hand in the midday heat.
In stark contrast, modern buildings are mushrooming nearby. High-rise luxury apartments are planned for land surrounding the heritage area, where some of the dhobis lived and dried clothes. Prime real estate in the overcrowded city.
Anil Kanojia, a dhobi, explains how they feel about the development.
"It is a mixed opinion of the dhobis. Some are happy because the new generation, modernised machinery, modernised things we are going to get. But some are unhappy because we are doing this business from the generations and traditionally. By the hand, we are washing on the stones and drying our clothes on the ropes. But now due to the development on our drying grounds, we are changing drastically."
Omkar is the Mumbai developer behind these changes. Babulal Varma is the company's managing director.
"Definitely in Mumbai land prices are always very high because if you will see the geography of Mumbai, three sides are of water, so you can't expand. Wherever there's land in Mumbai available, you have to develop in that only."
The company plans to remove some of the traditional washing stones just outside the main heritage area, but it insists it will provide the dhobis with modern washing facilities and will rehome the ones that have lost their huts into tower blocks.
Anil says that some dhobis worry about what will happen if they lose their livelihoods.
"There are some reasons, or personal reasons, we haven't been getting so much jobs outside. That is the reason we have come to this business."
The question is, will the dhobis adapt as the modernisation of Mumbai continues, or will they be hung out to dry?
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