Wheels of misfortune

Prabhavathi Sabaridas says nearly 75 per cent of the income she gets from door-to-door waste collection is spent on repairs of a four-wheeler vehicle allotted by the city Corporation under the KSUDP scheme.— Photo: K. Ragesh

Prabhavathi Sabaridas, a Kudumbasree worker from Athanikkal, wakes up at 5 a.m. everyday.

After the early morning household chores, she starts her visits to 30 houses to collect waste. The effort fetches an additional income for her family.

The amount she earns is mainly sent to meet the hostel fee of her son, who is pursuing a technical course in Coimbatore.

But for the last four years, the morning battle of this woman has been going through a crisis. Blame it all on a goods carrier allotted by the city Corporation under the KSUDP scheme for door-to-door waste collection. Nearly 75 per cent of the total income she gets from the job is spent on the repairs of this four-wheeler vehicle.

The woman says the vehicle has been having frequent engine failures. “Mechanics exploit my ignorance and charge heavily each time for repairs.” she adds.

During this fiscal, Prabhavathi has spent nearly Rs.30,000 for the repairs. The Kudumbasree women are supposed to use these vehicles free and live with the income given by the residents from their area. No maintenance cost is guaranteed, which now surfaces as a problem.

“If the vehicle was mechanically fit, we could have somehow managed the show,” she says.

“Nearly 20 women from Puthiyangadi and Athanikkal had similar vehicles, but 15 of them have quit, she says.

“Every year, at least Rs.15,000 has to be shelled out for completing the annual brake fitness test. We take the vehicle to a workshop nearly 20 km away from the city, as no company service centres are functional here,” says Prabhavathi. She also rues “the show does not end with this, as there are frequent unexpected breakdowns.”

In addition to the repairing cost and diesel expenses, these women are compelled to pay at least Rs.4,000 as vehicle insurance per annum. The returns they get from 30 houses in their area for the work will come to around Rs.3,000 per month.

“This month, I have to pay Rs.5,000 to a mechanic for the work completed last Monday,” she says. According to her, it is high time the Corporation intervened.