In order to do this report I visited a slum in periyamedu, vepery road. First I absorbed what they were working on!!! later when speaking to the people, they said that they are stitching plastic sheet so as to keep themselves preserved from rain. Then I made a conversation with an old lady by name Lakshmi.
she said, "I
m staying in this place for about 45yrs. my husband passed away before 25yrs, from then onwards I staying alone with my six daughters all alone. I got both my daughters married and every day my son-in-laws will go to the tas mac and finish up their earning there. one of my daughters is staying in vyasarpadi where i don like to go and stay with her as that wouldnt be fare. because of my poverty I was not able to educate my daughters and also my grand children. I borrowed an amount of 20,000 for the wedding purpose and every month I pay the interest. In case if there is any construction work, we would go there and we will be paid some wages. We dont have any ID card or ration card since there is no permanent address for us.
We suffer during rainy season. though our house is made of cover sheets, we cannot sleep as the floor would be wet. we will go and sit there in shops in the opposite side and after the rain, we will come back to our tents."
After this I went to the next street that is little inside. The name of that street is singers colony. I spoke to another lady by name Kanchana.
"I was born here and now I am 54yrs old. I got married here and my husband's name is Antony, he is a rickshaw driver. if he gets any trip he might get 100 or 200 a day. I do house work. even my daughters were born here and they got married. we dont give or take any dowry. We will do according to our strength. We have a public toilet to use and we will just lock our house and take bath inside the house. since we are aged, we have applied for the pension, its almost been 1year that we still did not get any news from the government. In our area it is very rare that we fall little sick. cause we eat only once a day depending on the amount we get. we have a good health. in case we get cold, we go to a hospital nearby where they give us tabletets for free and that would be sufficient for us. All of us in this area support DMK. if ADMK comes into ruling postion, we will be troubled by those party people telling us to vacate the place or they will burn down our huts."
One of the m
ost interesting fact is that many of them has a cell phone, and when I asked them about moving to kanagi Nagar where houses are given by the government, the only common comment they gave is, "If our children wants to go, let them go, but we will not go there until our death. because we see this place as our family and we know to do something here rathar than suffering in a new place."
she said, "I
m staying in this place for about 45yrs. my husband passed away before 25yrs, from then onwards I staying alone with my six daughters all alone. I got both my daughters married and every day my son-in-laws will go to the tas mac and finish up their earning there. one of my daughters is staying in vyasarpadi where i don like to go and stay with her as that wouldnt be fare. because of my poverty I was not able to educate my daughters and also my grand children. I borrowed an amount of 20,000 for the wedding purpose and every month I pay the interest. In case if there is any construction work, we would go there and we will be paid some wages. We dont have any ID card or ration card since there is no permanent address for us.We suffer during rainy season. though our house is made of cover sheets, we cannot sleep as the floor would be wet. we will go and sit there in shops in the opposite side and after the rain, we will come back to our tents."
After this I went to the next street that is little inside. The name of that street is singers colony. I spoke to another lady by name Kanchana.
"I was born here and now I am 54yrs old. I got married here and my husband's name is Antony, he is a rickshaw driver. if he gets any trip he might get 100 or 200 a day. I do house work. even my daughters were born here and they got married. we dont give or take any dowry. We will do according to our strength. We have a public toilet to use and we will just lock our house and take bath inside the house. since we are aged, we have applied for the pension, its almost been 1year that we still did not get any news from the government. In our area it is very rare that we fall little sick. cause we eat only once a day depending on the amount we get. we have a good health. in case we get cold, we go to a hospital nearby where they give us tabletets for free and that would be sufficient for us. All of us in this area support DMK. if ADMK comes into ruling postion, we will be troubled by those party people telling us to vacate the place or they will burn down our huts."
One of the m
ost interesting fact is that many of them has a cell phone, and when I asked them about moving to kanagi Nagar where houses are given by the government, the only common comment they gave is, "If our children wants to go, let them go, but we will not go there until our death. because we see this place as our family and we know to do something here rathar than suffering in a new place."R.John PRabhakaran,
M.A. J&C.
M.A. J&C.
