Lives That Went Broke
Seripalli is a small village on the banks of river Krishna, located in Alampur Mandal in Mahabubnagar District of Andhra Pradesh. Alampur is religiously/historically popular. One of the eighteen sakthi peethas, Jogulamba Temple, is located here. What is not popular are the struggles of the villagers here to eke out a living. One such struggling family in Seripalli depends on weaving for living.
Two girls – Sarada aged 16 and Jamuna aged 18 learnt weaving skill from their father since very young and were helping their parents. Apart from weaving their father also fished in the river. With the income from both these livelihoods, the family was able to sail through fine until that day when disaster struck. Father of Sarada and Jamuna drowned while fishing and died.
This plunged the family into mental and financial agony. The girls took up full time weaving and mother, Lakshmidevi got engaged as agricultural labour to make the ends meet. The girls borrow raw materials from a trader in Gadwal and weave one saree in a week’s time and receive Rs.400 as wage for their labour. The Rs.400 is inclusive of their transport and other expenses.
The money that the girls and the mother make is barely sufficient to meet their needs. None can afford to get sick or stop working even for a day else they would starve. The burden of getting the girls married looms large on Lakshmidevi. She saves money through SHG but that is a very small amount. Her agony is indescribable
*Information till Nov-2007
Narsayya and Shocks
Narasayya belongs to Cherla Ankireddypalli village of Medak district. He is 50 years old. He and his wife Bala, support his his old mother and a mentally retarded 12 years old son.
They have over 1.5 acres of land. But due to monkeys menace and unavailability of labour on time, he generally gets about Rs.3,000 as yearly income from agriculture.
He adopted fishing as a supplementary livelihood. However, he is unable to go for fishing in rainy season as the river is in spate. He also does not go fishing in the winter season as it is too cold out there in the river. He never loses an occasion to go for fishing if he can. From fishing, he earns about Rs.1,800 per year.
In addition, he also goes for agricultural labour
His wife went into a state of shock after his 15 years daughter died in a lorry accident. One day after the accident, his wife was not even mindful of a fire accident that burnt her saree. For this, Narasayya had to incur an additional expenditure of up to Rs.10, 000.
Thus, Narasayya lives a life of penury with low agricultural yield from his fields, his wife in a state of shock, a daughter who could share his burden is now dead and the son, mentally ill. Living in these conditions is itself a great feat for the valiant soul of Narasayya. This household is not touched by the progress in the village. Even SHGs do not accept membership of Bala as she
cannot save. Can we help them?
*Information till Dec-2007
Venkatarao’s health crisis
Venkatarao is a lorry driver. His wife is Pullamma. They have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. Venkatarao is on job as lorry driver for 15 days in a month. The remaining 15 days he stays at home and works in the fields. Pullamma is an agricultural labourer. The couple make about Rs.3000 a month between them and run the family. They also pay their kids education expenses. Life was going on more or less undisturbed.
But fate struck Venkatarao like many other lorry drivers in India today. Venkatarao fell prey to his senses. He is now infected with AIDS. He now falls sick often. Venkatarao learnt that he has AIDs only after one year.
Venkatarao’s family is now in distress. The entire family burden shifted on to Pullamma. Venkatarao is no longer able to work as lorry driver. His health would not permit long journeys. Therefore he stays back at home and does petty jobs. His earnings are barely enough to meet his medical expenditure. Loss of income forced the couple to withdraw two of their elder children from school. These kids now go for agricultural works. The younger two are still continuing their school.
Pullamma is however determined to give good medicines to her husband and continue the younger ones in school so
they can make a better living as they grow. This is her desire, this is her hope. For many in India poverty is just around the corner. When it strikes and takes them into its fold is a matter of time. This is a sad reality we live with.
*Information till Jan-2008
Brahmayya in a Deep Debt Spiral
Brahmayya is a small and marginal farmer in the state of AP. He owns only an acre of dry land. In fact this is his only
asset. He was growing red chilli and cotton in his one acre land. Brahmayya’s family includes himself, his wife and two children. The income from the dry land was barely enough for the family to get by. Brahmayya’s family engaged themselves in agricultural labour in others fields when they had no work in their own field. The gave some additional income to the household. However this still did not meet all their needs. Any expenditure on health or other risks would through them into debt trap.
At this juncture, Brahmayya decided to take some land on lease within the village itself. He took 3 acres of land on lease. He also borrowed Rs.1, 00, 000 at a high interest rate. He decided to grow red chilli in the entire 4 acres of land – 1 acre his own dry land and 3 acres lease land. His crop of red chilli came out reasonably good. He got 70 quintals from 4 acres of land. But unfortunately, the price of the red chilli was very low at that time. This price would put him back to square one. At this point storing in godowns till the price of the red chilli shoots up would be a wise move. However being a small farmer with a burden of Rs.1,00,000 as loan and mounting interest on the loan, storing in godown was not an option for Brahmayya. He was already paying close to Rs.15000 as interest on the loan. In addition to this the pressures from the money lender was mounting as well. Therefore Brahmayya had to resort to distress selling.
Brahmayya sold his produce for a lower price of Rs.1000 per quintal. He got Rs.70000 and used up this money to repay part of his loan. He still had to repay Rs.45000. (Rs.30,000 principle and Rs.15,000 as interest). To meet this debt he mortgaged his land for Rs.45000. This put Brahmayya in a debt spiral. Crop diversification might have helped Brahmayya to some extent. Also access to information on cropping patterns, market conditions, supply-demand scenario, pricing situation would immensely help farmers. Having seen several failures farmers like Brahmayya may be on the verge of giving up. They need help in all ways, not just financial. They need spiritual capital - self-confidence, courage to fight. They need to be cared for. Otherwise the list of farmers suicides might continue its upward spiral.
*Information till Feb-2008
Distress Migration
Marikal is a tiny village in Kothapalli Mandal in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh. This village is well known for out migration. The people of this village migrate to Hyderabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Vijayawada and other areas in search of work. Migration of both land owners and agricultural labour is commonly seen in this village. At least one person per family migrated. Bolle Lakshmaiah and Lakshmamma are husband and wife. Lakshmaiah is 37 years old and his wife is 31. They belong to Scheduled Caste community. This couple is blessed with two children. The son is 8 years old and is a school dropout. Their daughter is 3 years old.
This couple own one acre of dry land. In that land they grow rain-fed crops like maize and castor. The per year yield comes to around 2 to 3 quintals. This fetches them a paltry income between Rs.1000 to Rs.1500. Lakshmaiah and his wife could not find any other works in the village that will increase their employment days and give them decent additional income. When found, the works would only fetch anywhere between Rs.10 to Rs.15 per day. This was barely sufficient to fulfill even the basic needs of the family. With a hope that the government would help them in building a house, Lakshmaiah borrowed money in the village and started constructing his house. The construction progressed till basement but no help came from the government. Lakshmaiah was caught in the debt he made towards the house. The house remained unfinished.
In this context the family migrated to Hyderabad in search of livelihood about a year ago. They put together a temporary hut to live. The couple joined as construction labour through a contractor. Between them they earn about 120 to 130 rupees per day. If they get this kind of work continuously they will be able to save at least half the earnings. But unfortunately the number of days of employment they get is limited. Sometimes they have to go without work for a week at a stretch.
During these times they borrow money either from the contractor or relatives or acquaintances. The interest on these loans vary between 3 to 5 per cent. The place where they live do not have drinking water facility. There is no medical facility either. Further they live with the constant risk of being vacated from the land at any time. Lakshmaiah and his wife are willing to return to the village if they can find a decent livelihood. For now they just make
Short trips to the village to check on their land.
*Information till Mar-2008
Debt + Accident = Suicide!
Nakka Chinna Gangu belongs to Sattekkapalli village in Ibrahimpatnam Mandal of Karimnagar district of AP. Her life
was a smooth sailing until fate struck when her husband met with an accident.
Chinna Gangu’s husband is Nagaraju. The couple are blessed with three daughters. Many people from their village migrated to Gulf countries for 3 to 4 years to make money. Chinna Gangu’s husband decided to follow suit. He got his
passport and flight tickets. For this expenditure he look a loan of Rs.50000 from a local money lender.
Unfortunately, after all these arrangements, Nagaraju met with a close to fatal accident at Venkataraopet. His hand and leg got fractured and he suffered brain hemorrhage. Chinna Gangu immediately joined him in Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad. The doctors who treated him found that Nagaraju was suffering from blood cancer. After this Nagaraju was confined to home. He could not engage in any productive activity. The debt he made for going to gulf was looming large. Added to this they incurred lot of expenditure on his treatment. Nagaraju was depressed and hanged himself to death one fateful day. With husband’s death, Chinna Gangu became mentally ill. She incurred about Rs.30000 towards her hospital charges.
All the debts put together became a whopping 3 lakh rupees. Chinna Gangu faced lot of pressure from moneylenders from whom she borrowed money. She had to sell off her one acre land for 1.95 lakhs and repaid some of her debts. Her relatives helped get Chinna Gangu’s elder daughter married. The other two daughters are pursuing education, 4th and 2nd standards.
Presently Chinna Gangu is engaged in agricultural works and NREGA works. When she has some spare time she
makes Beedies and sells them. All her earnings are just enough to pay the interest on her loans. She continues to
live in the debt trap.
Chinna Gangu is a member of an SHG in her village. Recently she took Rs.50000 in the group under Total Financial Inclusion scheme. Some of that money was used to pay for her daughter’s wedding expenses. With the remaining money she started vegetable selling business. Chinna Gangu strongly desires to educate her two daughters against all odds. We hope she realizes all her dreams.
*Information till April-2008
Risk Pushes Rukkamma into Poverty
Somaiah and Rukkamma’s family belong to PedaMupparam village of Narasampet mandal of Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh. The major livelihood of this family is toddy (palm sap) tapping. This couple has four children, 3 sons and one daughter. All their sons got married. Their elder son is living separately and the younger one is doing a small job in Surat and staying there. Only their second son is living with them along with his wife. Their daughter is pursuing her graduation.
Somaiah’s second son does toddy tapping through out the year. But Somaiah does only in some seasons i.e. for 5 months where demand for toddy is high. He works as agricultural labourer in the remaining months. Rukkamma cannot work because of her ill health. Hence their family has to survive on the meager incomes earned by Somaiah and their son. Both of them together can earn up to Rs 45,000/- a year. With that little money they get their daughter educated and also meet their day to day needs.
While their family is struggling to survive, suddenly their daughter–in–law got brain fever. They had to spend lot of money towards medical help. They took her to many hospitals. They even visited corporate hospitals. They spent almost Rs 1,00,000/- towards hospital fees. They barrowed this money from a local money lender at a very high interest rate. However in spite of all their efforts they could not save the daughter-in-law. She succumbed to brain fever shortly.
Their family is now in distress. What they earn is barely enough to meet their needs. As of now they are not even able to pay interest on their loans they have taken. The interest is mounting, the debt burden is increasing. Now the family is contemplating of selling the only asset they own - half acre land to repay some debts. This means they will have to give up their asset and become landless. They will not have anything else left to cater to future shocks. The livelihood they practice - toddy tapping - is of high risk. A fall from the tree can prove fatal.