The Hindu : `We will vote this time too'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

`We will vote this time too'

By Harichandan A.A.

Nagappa

BANGALORE, MARCH 15. Seasons don't make much of a difference to Nagappa, nor do elections, as he limps along with his broom and a tattered basket. An old disease has twisted his body and given him an ungainly gait. "Of course I have voted before ... I have lost count," Nagappa says.

Anything beyond his work is not worthy of comment, for that can cause trouble. His identity card, given by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, sits in his shirt pocket, wrapped carefully in a plastic cover. "Yes, this time too I'll vote," is all one can elicit from him, as he determinedly walks away.

Keshamma

It can get worse. You could be a woman, and on contract. Some 8,000 pourakarmikas, mostly on contract for meagre pay, work hard trying to keep the city clean. Their lack of organisation means that they are often cheated out of even what is due to them. As an increasing number of women, considered more amenable, are engaged on contract, issues such as healthcare, and education for their children are something they can only dream of.

"Elections are of no use to us," says Keshamma. With her green shirt, which says she is on contract, she wields two long brooms cleaning a long stretch of road. The 40-year-old woman and her painter husband have three children, of which only one goes to school.

Kondaiah

A constant refrain among the permanent employees is: "Why don't you talk to our `mestri' about elections ... he will tell you all you want to know. He is the best person for reporters to talk to." As for the contract workers, they just shrug and walk away.

Nagaratna

Nagaratna works with Keshamma. "Whatever she told you is fine, I have nothing to add." She came to Bangalore when she was married off. He sits at home and "can't do anything," she says. He was afflicted with polio. They have a child who goes to school.

Nagaratna is reluctant to say what her take home pay is. Speaking up would only land her in trouble with her contractor. She and Keshamma said they couldn't recall their MLA's name. "But we will vote this time too."

Srinivasulu -- Photos: K. Murali Kumar.

In the next road, Kondaiah and Sreenivasulu, pourakarmikas and permanent employees, work together, clearing water drains of fallen leaves and refuse thrown by careless residents. "People see us only as `government employees', but do you know what hardships we face? You tell whoever wants to know ... the elections will not do a thing for us. The rich are getting richer and we are where we were when we started working."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka