Kavitha Muralidharan

Author

P. Sainath

Editor

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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“Will this annual fuss over the budget even slightly change our lives?” asks K. Nagamma, a single mother of two. Her husband died in 2007 while cleaning a septic tank—a tragedy that led her to the Safai Karamchari Andolan, where she now serves as a convenor. Her eldest daughter, Shyla, is a nurse, while the younger one, Anandhi, holds a temporary government job.<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">“‘Budget’ is just a fancy word for us. We can’t even manage a budget at home with what we earn, and we’re excluded from the government’s plans. What budget anyway? Will it help me marry off my daughters?”<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Nagamma’s parents had migrated to Chennai before her birth and so she was born and raised in Chennai. She was married off by her father in 1995 to his sister’s son who lived in their hometown, Nagulapuram. In this village near Pamuru in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district, her husband Kannan worked as a mason. The families are from the Madiga community, listed as a Scheduled Caste. “In 2004, after having two children, we decided to come to Chennai for our daughters’ education,” Nagamma recalls. Within three years of doing so, <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 61, 8);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/my-mother-is-a-fearless-woman/">Kannan died</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">.

<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Living in a cramped house along one of the narrow lanes of St. Thomas Mount near Guindy, Chennai, Nagamma’s life hasn’t changed much since I last met her five years ago. “Even when gold was 20-30,000 rupees per sovereign, I hoped to save bit by bit to buy one or two sovereigns. [Sovereign is roughly 8 grams]. Now, with the price of a sovereign at between 60-70,000 rupees, how can I afford my daughters’ weddings? Maybe we’ll only manage if gold stops being part of marriages.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">After a reflective pause she adds quietly: “Forget gold—what about food? Gas cylinders, rice, even the cheapest milk packet in an emergency feels out of reach. I pay 2,000 rupees for the same amount of rice I bought for 1,000 just a year ago. But our income remains the same.”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Her frustration deepens as she speaks about the struggles of manual scavengers in whose cause she has become a full-time activist. “Nothing has improved for them,” she says. “SRMS* became NAMASTE, but what’s the point? At least under SRMS, we could form groups and get loans to live with some dignity. But under NAMASTE, they give us machines—essentially forcing us to do the same job my husband died doing. Tell me, will a machine give us dignity?”<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:&quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:29px;margin:0px 0px 20px;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;SRMS:&nbsp; The Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers, 2007 was renamed NAMASTE &nbsp;or National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem in 2023. But as Nagamma points out, it reinforced rather than changed the lives of manual scavengers.

‘Will the budget help marry off my daughters?’

‘મારી દીકરીઓને પરણાવવામાં બજેટ કંઈ મદદ કરશે?’

‘నా కూతుళ్ళకు పెళ్ళిచేయటానికి ఈ బడ్జెట్ సహాయం చేస్తుందా?’

'ਕੀ ਇਹ ਬਜਟ ਮੇਰੀਆਂ ਧੀਆਂ ਦੇ ਵਿਆਹ ਵਿੱਚ ਮਦਦ ਕਰੇਗਾ?'

'എന്റെ പെൺമക്കളെ വിവാഹം കഴിച്ചയക്കാൻ ബഡ്ജറ്റ് സഹായിക്കുമോ?'

‘ಬಜೆಟ್‌ನಿಂದ ನನ್ನ ಹೆಣ್ಣು ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮದುವೆಗೆ ಏನಾದ್ರೂ ಸಹಾಯ ಆಗ್ತದಾ?ʼ

 ‘काय बजट मोर बेटी मन के बिहाव मं मदद करही?’ 

‘बजट से हमरी बेटियन के बियाह में का मदद मिली?’

‘এই বাজেটে মোৰ ছোৱালীকেইজনীক বিয়া দিয়াত সহায় কৰিবনে?’

’کیا سرکار کے بجٹ سے میری بیٹیوں کی شادی ہو جائے گی؟‘

‘माझ्या पोरींची लग्नं लागणारेत का या बजेटने?’

‘ବଜେଟ୍‌ ମୋ ଝିଅ ବାହାଘରରେ ସହାୟକ ହେବ କି?’

‘क्या सरकार के बजट से मेरी बेटियों की शादी हो जाएगी?'

‘বাজেট দিয়ে কী মেয়েদের বিয়ে দিতে পারবো?’

‘இந்த பட்ஜெட்டை வைத்து என் மகள்களின் திருமணத்தை முடிக்க முடியுமா?’

Chennai

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‘Will the budget help marry off my daughters?’

In Chennai, the widow of a rural migrant and sanitation worker who died while cleaning a septic tank asks the government to explain how union budget 2025-26 benefits her

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