Girls help dad keep newspaper business afloat

VIJAYAPURA: Seema and Sahana awake early every morning, strap on bundles of newspapers, straddle their bicycles and pedal away, dropping off their cargo in nearly 80 houses and shops in the city of Vijayapura. After their morning chore, the girls leave for school and college.
The girls are helping their father, Devendra Rajapur, a newspaper vendor with a cart in front of Central Bus Stand for the past three decades.
Between them, the girls bring in Rs 5,000 a month, enough to help Rajapur meet rising expenses.
Seema and Sahana are a familiar sight in the mornings at the bus stand and Lal Bahadur Shastri Market area, sometimes on their bicycles and at others at the cart. Sahana, a class 8 student at Government High School, recalls how they came into the business.
"One morning five years ago, the boys who worked for my father did not turn up, which made it very difficult for him to distribute the papers and also run the stall. So we sisters decided to work as newspaper girls to help him out."
Seema, doing her PU at the Government Girls PU College, is proud that she is doing what is traditionally a boy's job. "What's wrong in doing this work which boys do every day? We wake up at 5.30am and reach the bus stand to collect newspapers from the agent. We start distributing them at exactly 6am and wind up by about 8am. After this, we get down to studies."
Seema, who scored 73% in the SSLC examination, got busy with the admission process in the past month. "She had to study and couldn't distribute her share of the papers, so I took up her work too," says young Sahana. She knows the importance of time in this business, and that she has to hurry up to drop the papers.
"It is very rare that newspapers are distributed by girls. But my daughters are an exceptional case and have helped me strengthen my income by earning Rs 5,000 per month," said Rajapur.
He is also waiting for his daughters' scholarships. "I have been waiting for three months. The scholarship amount sanctioned to my daughters by the social welfare department has not been released as yet."