No fireworks, but alcohol adds fuel to the virus

“I try to put my children to sleep during the day and ensure they are inside the house. This way, I can keep them from seeing other children eating food,” Devi Kanakaraj (name changed) told me when we spoke on April 14. That day, she had provisions left for only a couple of days. “I am unable to provide enough for them now. I have no one to seek help from,” she said. 

Like many women from the impoverished Arunthathiyar community, listed as a Scheduled Caste, in Edayapottalpatti, her hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district, 28-year-old Devi works at a fireworks factory in the nearby Sivakasi town, about 25 kilometres away, for weekly wages. Until the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed on March 24, she was earning Rs. 250 a day for the extremely dangerous job of filling gunpowder into rocket tubes and paper shells.

In early April, Devi received 15 kilos of rice and one kilo of dal as lockdown relief  from the state government – but that had depleted fast. “We [her family] also received Rs. 1,000 from the government. We spent it on buying vegetables and groceries. The ration shop did not give us oil. I am rationing food, only two meals a day,” she had told me.

At the beginning of May, Devi’s family received 30 kilos of rice, 1 kilo of dal, a litre of oil and 2 kilos of sugar. After the two weeks, only some of the rice remained. “There is no money to buy vegetables and groceries,” she said. “We are eating only rice and pickle now.”

On May 18, the lockdown was eased in Virudhunagar because fewer Covid-19 cases were reported in the district. Devi went back to work that day, hoping to earn money to feed her daughters, aged 12, 10 and 8. Her husband, R. Kanakaraj (name changed), 30, who drives trucks for a living, spends a major part of his income on drinking.

About 3 lakh workers are involved in manufacturing firecrackers in the Sivakasi factories, and at least 4-5 lakh people work in allied industries, says Muthukrishnan A., secretary of the Tamil Nadu Fireworks Industries Workers Protection Association. He runs a fireworks unit that employs 50 workers in Sivakasi.

More than half of the Arunthathiyar community works in these factories, a majority of them women. “It is the workers from this community who take up the most dangerous works in the fireworks factories,” says Ponnuchamy M., state coordinator of the Tamil Nadu Labour Rights Federation (TNLRF), who lives in Edayapottalpatti. “They fill chemicals [gunpowder] into tubes, which has higher accident risk.”

Before the lockdown, Devi worked at the factory for 3-5 days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “They send vehicles to the village at 7 a.m. to pick us up and then drop us home by 6 p.m.,” she says. The factory shuts during the rains [June to August] or if an accident occurs at a nearby factory. “When I don’t have this work, I go to the cotton fields and earn Rs. 150 a day,” she says. Other than the fields, where Devi works for 2-3 days a week from January to March, she also takes up work under MGNREGA.

The factories were shut down for four months in 2019 for another reason – a Supreme Court verdict of October 2018 permitting manufacture of only low-polluting crackers.

Devi was hoping for better days this year, but by mid-April she had exceeded the credit given to her by local shops to buy groceries.

During the lockdown, there were no government-run community kitchens to feed Devi and her family. Organisations like TNLRF managed to distribute food supplies to a few workers. “We identified 44 families [in need], and distributed provisions,” says Ponnuchamy.

The panchayats too did not receive special funds to tackle the crisis. In Padikkasu vaithanpatti, panchayat president A. Murugesan used the funds released by the state government every quarter – for water and sanitation, and maintenance of village infrastructure – to pay sanitation workers and provide them food. Murugesan says he has spent over Rs. 30,000 of his own money on distributing rations.

The burden of financial distress and family strife because of their alcoholic husbands has caused severe mental distress to many in Virudhnagar. “My husband could not find work [during the lockdown] and he had no money. He got angry at every conversation we would have,” says Rani M. (name changed), who works as a sweeper on contract at the government school in Edayapottalpatti.

Rani’s husband, who works at a repairs workshop and earns about Rs. 500 on the days he has work, spends most of his money on alcohol. “He keeps demanding money, and always finds fault in anything I do. He constantly beats me up. I put up with him for the sake of my three children,” she says.

Rani was deprived of the cash and rations given by the government during the lockdown since she does not have a ration card. She has no work and no income until the school reopens. 

Her neighbour, G. Kamachi, also lives in fear of her husband every night. He has been beating and verbally abusing her, demanding money to drink. When she refused, he sold their bicycle to buy a drink.

The women’s problems are compounded by the frequent visits of moneylenders, asking for repayment of high-interest loans. Devi’s debt runs to more than Rs. 2 lakh – most of it taken for house repairs. The wages of Rs. 500, which she received on May 30 will not be spent on food, she says. “This will go towards repayment of my loans.”