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Tamil Nadu
For a livelihood: Women workers engaged in broom making at M.K.N. Road, Alandur. — TAMBARAM: It is unlikely that those travelling on M.K.N. Road in Alandur might have missed a few dozen men, women and their children engaged in making broomsticks made from the stiff coconut twigs or fibre (‘thennan thodappam’) on the stretch. Trivial it may seem so for many, but the use of the product that they make is an important part of the daily chores of many men and women engaged in keeping their houses, public places, bus stops, railway stations and sanitary complexes clean. No replacement“Many modern gadgets to clear dust and cobwebs might have been invented, but the humble broomsticks cannot be replaced,” remarked K. Muniyammal. For this 64-year-old woman, hailing from Gopalpatti in Dindigul district, the margins of M.K.N. Road have been her home for as long as she remembers. “Earlier, we used to travel all the way to Dindigul, Manapparai and Madurai to buy ‘thennan kutchi’ (twigs) in bulk. Now we order them and the consignment reaches here by trucks,” she says. Today, they buy 100 bundles of coconut twigs for Rs. 500. Once the bundles arrive, the women and men trim the twigs, tie them using a dry frond of the coconut tree and are then ready to be sold. After all expenditure, they sell each normal broom for Rs. 4.50 or Rs. 5, while the long ones used by sanitary staff of different government departments are sold at Rs. 15 each. Apart from several residents of Alandur and nearby areas who buy the brooms from the spot, some of the men pack them in huge bundles to be delivered to provision stores. “Our net profit is just 50 paise per broom and the profit margin has not increased considerably over these years,” said P. Ravi, a youth hailing from Dindigul who has been living on the stretch for 11 years now. The families said broomstick-making was an important cottage industry, but for those in Alandur, there was no recognition. “Getting coconut twigs is not an easy task as we cannot procure them from any of the districts near Chennai. We have to travel all the way till Madurai and adjoining districts for getting the raw material,” Mr. Ravi said, adding that government assistance in some form, including housing and creation of a marketing facility would be of immense help.
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