Socio-Economic conditions of Cobblers in Pune City

Abstract Maladies pertaining to the unorganised sector in India have baffled policymakers and bureaucrats for years. Cobblers, compared to earlier generations, have become a rather disregarded part of the economy, partly due to digitisation and the advent of e-commerce, which has made commodities such as footwear cheaper, reducing incentives to repair footwear, especially within urban areas. This article shows that observable structural changes within one particular profession are highly dynamic and, in this case, to some extent significantly damaging for these self-employed workers. The study presents data collected from 75 cobblers operating in different parts of Pune city in India, providing insights into their current working practices and economic well-being. Utilising multinomial logistic regression (MLR) revealed that the incomes of cobblers were primarily influenced by age, ownership of land and property, not by variables such as education and experience, which generally affect the livelihoods of individuals.