With no work or wages, daily earners grow hungrier, more desperate

BEED: Meerabai Rathod had not had a bite till 3 in the afternoon. She doesn't have a single rupee at home. The note-badli has meant virtually no work for the farm labourer for the last ten days.
The young widow and her two daughters depend solely on the kindness of neighbours. "There are days we go hungry. Sometimes our neighbours give us food," says Hirabai, who lives in Pimpri-tada with her children aged 8 and 4.She has to get through another two weeks before migrating to Karnataka to cut sugarcane.
Demonetisation has hit daily-wagers the hardest. They have no buffer against the devastating impact of the cash squeeze. With farmers and traders running out of cash and large mandis coming to a standstill, those lower in the chain-such as landless farm labourers, market loaders, handcart-pullers and construction workers-are growing hungrier and more desperate.
Most of them have no bank accounts and depend on daily cash pay-outs, earning as little as Rs 150 to Rs 400 per day. They used to find work two or three times a week. Now, even this has dried up.
Meera Kagade is plucking and sorting cotton at a farm in Morgao the hope of future payments. The bajra at home will only last another four days. The family has stopped drinking tea.
"My seven-year-old son asked for a packet of biscuits but I did not have Rs 5 to give him," she says ruefully. Her employer Shivganga Kagade is equally stuck. She needs 20 labourers on her farm during this peak harvest season but has only hired four on credit. "There is no sale in the cotton market. How can I pay labourers?" she asks.
Large grain and fertiliser markets like Zuna Mondha in Beed district are virtually deserted. The collapse of trade here has meant that hundreds of hamaals, loaders, and mapadis who weigh goods are jobless.
"How will we get through the 50 days that the government wants? The sarkaar is only for itself," says Badri Sakpal bitterly. He used to load fertilisers in the market and has not found work in a week.
Construction workers at Zuna Mondha, including those skilled in RCC work and welding, are hoping to be picked for something. "I used to make up to Rs 1,200 a week. We have borrowed money from relatives," says welder Shaikh Davar.
The wave of panic over note-badli and the uncertainly over how long the currency shortage will last, is hindering the extension of credit.
Arun Suryabhan's tea-shop at the Patoda bazaar is among the few operating on credit. "That's because we get milk on credit. But this can last only for one more week," he says.
The tea-shop is 80-year old Rajabhai Jadhav's only hope of survival. She cooks the snacks there for Rs 150 a day. Now there is no salary but she can take the leftovers home. "The two chapatis I ate here were my only meal today. What will we do if the tea-shop closes?" she asks.