The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Life’s a dark alley for them

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Monday, May 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Life’s a dark alley for them

K.V. Prasad

Photo: K. Ananthan

Unending plight: Retired conservancy worker Nachal (left) with her visually impaired son N. Kuppusamy. –

“In the present price situation, even a king will become pauper,” wails Nachal, a retired sweeper of the Coimbatore Corporation. “I get Rs.1,500 pension and have to take care of myself and a son who is visually impaired,” she says.

Her 45-year-old son N. Kuppusamy moves about using a stick with a bell fixed on it. “I have to be with him always. He cannot earn. We tried to find out whether he could be suitable for any job. Nothing has worked out so far. Now, both of us have to live on a meagre pension,” she says. Nachal got her two daughters married off and she cannot expect their help.

Finding it hard to explain how she copes with the rise in the prices of commodities she buys for every day life, she sums up the situation thus: “Our life is very dark. We do not know how to move on.”

A few feet away from her house at Kamarajapuram in Ganapathy in the city, retired sweeper of the Corporation S. Balraj sleeps on a coir cot. He sits up to explain the difficulties he and his wife, Palaniamma, are already facing. “Now, she is going to retire soon and our problems are going to worsen,” he points out.

That his son B. Ravi is a conservancy worker is no consolation. He has a family that has its own struggle against the prices. Mr. Balraj’s daughter Pushpalatha, who lives nearby, claims that even a hand-to-mouth existence has become extremely difficult for the retired workers.

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