Mochi are a community, found in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.They are the traditional shoemakers of South Asia.
The Muslim Mochi in Uttar Pradesh have been granted Other Backward Classes status, which allows them to access a number of affirmative action schemes by the Government of India.
The Mochi is thus entirely dependent on the locally dominant caste, and are paid from each cash crop at the end of the harvesting season according to a system called seypi.
Many of their patrons from the locally dominant castes such as the Jats no longer pay the traditional seypi.
Unlike in India, the Government of Pakistan has not provided any affirmative actions programmes.