Warangal: With the Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) factory closed since April 2014, the plight of its workers has grown acute. Shoban Babu, a worker at the factory, and a resident of Kamalapur village, has not been receiving a salary since the last 14 months and takes up whatever job he can on his weekly off to bring in some money.
His wife, Gorrela Dillamma, has been forced to work as a daily wage worker and also takes up other petty jobs to be able to run the house. They are unable to send their daughters to college and their future is a constant worry: their elder daughter, Swathi, who was in her Intermediate second year, was denied entry into her class as they had not cleared her dues. Finding it hard to make ends meet, Dillamma said that they saw no other option but to end their lives.
This is the story of one of many families in Kamalapur who are suffering the effects of the factory’s closure. The workers used their PF amount, savings and took loans to pull on thus far, but their options have narrowed now. Paying for medicines, children’s education and marriages among other contingencies, has become an enormous burden. Being factory workers, they are ineligible also to hold white ration cards.
“My wife is diabetic and needs an insulin injection every day. I am spending all my savings on her medicines. After the factory closed, the health centre has been neglected and provides us no medicines. Earlier, we used to get treatment for free. We have waited all these days for the factory to reopen, but we are losing hope now,” said P.S.R.C. Raju, who works in the water treatment department.
Another worker, G. Swamy, fractured both his legs in an accident a year ago when about 50 cement bags fell on him. Even though the factory paid for his treatment, he is still bedridden, with rods in his legs, and continues to pay for his medicines and the frequent trips to the hospital. “It would have been better if no one had seen me stuck under those cement bags and left me to die,” said Swamy, tears stinging his eyes.
