Karnataka   

Their life is a tight-rope walk

A member of Shankar’s family performing an acrobatic stunt in Chitradurga.

Chitradurga: Lalita is three months pregnant, yet she performs acrobatic stunts along with her husband Shekhar on the roadside to eke out a living.

Jaya, Lalita’s younger sister, who is about five years old, also performs several stunts to help her family earn some money. They are the members of nomadic tribe involved in traditional circus known as “Dombarata.”

Hailing from Yadgir taluk in Gulbarga district, the family has inherited the profession from their ancestors. “I was too young to remember the age when I joined the profession. All I know is that my parents were doing this and I learnt it from them,” says Shekhar.

He was accompanied by his uncle Shankar, aunt Shantamma, and their six children, including five daughters. They had come here from Bagalkot. “We will stay here for a week. If we earn a decent amount, we will stay for some more time, else we will proceed to Davangere,” said Shankar.

Having entering the trade at an early age, none of the family members have ever been to school as they feel that sending their children to school would only reduce the number of earners.

“Who will earn money if we send our children to school? It is because of the children that we earn some money through the charity of people,” said Shantamma.

Jaya, who was in a white frock and black tights, cannot even reply why she does not like to go to school. Her job is to perform some risky stunts such as hanging on a long bamboo mid-air as Shankar holds one end of it in his mouth. Besides this, she, along with her five sisters, performs other acrobatic stunts.

Dwelling in temporary huts outside the cities, the families earn about Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 a day.

“We visit our native place Yadgir once in three years. We do not have any property but our ancestral huts,” he said.

Married a year ago, Shekhar who is expecting his first child, when asked persistently, said that he would try to send one child to school, if he has four children.

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