The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Helpless, among the ruins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 04, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Helpless, among the ruins

Staff Reporter

Husbands could do nothing as the debris swallowed their better halves

TOO MUCH TO BEAR: Ramachandri weeps inconsolably, with his daughter on his lap, after his wife was killed in the wall collapse at Moulali on Friday. — Photo: D. Gopalakrishnan

HYDERABAD: Although eight months pregnant, Balamani had to go to work. Care and comfort during pregnancy have no place in the lives of labourers like her since not going to work meant losing an income of Rs.100 per day.

For unborn son

Balamani and another woman got killed when a wall suddenly collapsed on them at a construction site on Moulali road on Friday. "We already have a daughter and this time she was expecting a son. See how cruel God is, he took away the mother and son, too," cried Balamani's husband Ramachandri who also worked at the same place.

Hailing from a remote village in Mahabubnagar district, Ramachandri belonged to a poor labourer family. Drought and lack of work at his village drove him to the city. "She had worked when she was pregnant for the first time, too, two years ago. But I never thought earning daily bread would also turn into a curse for us," the desolate worker said.

Frustration

Ramachandri was busy breaking a huge rock at the site when the wall caved in. What frustrated him most was his failure in rescuing his wife. Even before he could act, his pregnant wife got buried under the debris. Efforts to remove the boulders proved in vain as they were too heavy.

Equally moving was the plight of Raghu whose wife Saroja too died in the incident. The couple too had a two-year-old daughter. "What do I tell my daughter when she asks for her mother?" wept the grief-stricken labourer.

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