The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : In search of livelihood, they have to travel miles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 28, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

In search of livelihood, they have to travel miles

Staff Reporter

Tough schedule: Sujatha and Lalitha of Amirpet getting ready for the day’s business at Malakpet Railway station.

HYDERABAD: Parvatamolla Sujatha lives with her husband, father-in-law and two kids in Amirpet in Ranga Reddy district. On Thursdays and Saturdays she takes a share-auto to Timmapur from where an early morning suburban or a passenger train bring her to Hyderabad.

There, with her infant son hung close to her bosom, she does what she can not in her village—beg.

Having a baby is a blessing.

“Otherwise, people will turn me away, chiding me to find some work,” she says. And work, due to its non-availability in her village, is the main reason for her trips to the city. Summer is especially tough, considering the slackening of agricultural activity. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is something unheard of in her village. Sujatha chose the two week-days keeping in view the huge turnout of devotees near temples. Unlike her, scores of other women do daily shuttles between their villages in Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts to the city for begging.

Shyamala, a lactating mother, is a regular visitor to the city from Shadnagar. Doctor advised her against heavy work after she had undergone a caesarean. Her infant son is exposed to the cold weather of Hyderabad while she begs.

“We grow ragi in an acre of land. But my husband’s earnings are not enough to sustain the family,” she says. This phenomenon is largely gender-specific. Radha Lakshmi from Nawabpet boards the passenger train from Mahabubnagar at 7 a.m. to the city.

“We have an acre of land in which we grow tomato, chilli and maize. We also work as agriculture labourers when free. When there is no work, we come for begging,” she explains.

Even when work is available, the pay is not viable. As agriculture labourers, Radha Lakshmi says, they get Rs.25 and a bottle of toddy as daily wages which is insignificant compared to the alms they get in the city - some times amounting to Rs.70 or more per day.

Begging is not taboo for her family. “They themselves send us. My mother-in-law will not brook any refusal,” she says, getting ready to dash to Kacheguda railway station to board the 3.35 p.m. Secunderabad-Kurnool passenger back to Mahabubnagar.

Their travel to and fro has tacit approval from railway employees, with the ticket examiner choosing to condone their ticketless travels and the booking clerk kind enough to convert their day’s coins into currency.

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