A daily wage of Rs. 150 has attracted the women folks of Vakatippa village to work in the firecrackers workshop, which was destroyed in the unprecedented explosion that took place on Monday and claimed 11 lives including 10 women.
The village consists of men and women who eke out a livelihood through daily labour. The firecrackers workshop had been providing them livelihood for the last two decades and more people are employed during the Diwali season.
“Women prefer to work there, as they can sit under the shade and make crackers. It is always claimed to be a better job compared to the agriculture work,” said Draksharam Chandra Rao, group president of Vakatippa MD Peta, from where 12 women were on the rolls of the workshop. “Most of the deceased are our relatives and the rest are family friends. We are unable to digest this tragedy,” a visibly shaken Chandra Rao said.
Auto-rickshaw driver vasamsetti Koteswara Rao is clueless about the whereabouts of his mother Raghavamma, who left for work in the morning. “We don’t know what to do at this moment,” said worried Rao who lives near the cracker making unit. His mother Raghavamma had been attending the work every day. “A couple of days ago, she even took my two children to the work. Yesterday, I raised a strong objection and even wanted her to sit at home. In view of the Diwali season, she ignored my caution,” he said.
Observing that the workshop management had taken all precautions to prevent the fire, Gudala Suryanarayana, a resident of the vicinity, said that the workshop had been shifted to the present location some five years ago and before that it was located at the nearby Kalavala Doddi village. “Probably, there were huge stocks of crackers by the time the explosion took place and that is the reason why the intensity was so high,” he said.
