Dawn is still a few hours away but a group of men are busy at work in the dingy alleys of Viswakarma Veedhi, Yellamma Bazar, Girimajipet and Warangal chowrasta that are lined with hundreds of jewellery shops.
Sporting brooms, long brushes and plastic or iron pans ( gamela in local parlance), the men get down to work — sweeping the roads and front yards of the jewellery shops. Their work does not stop there though, and some turn to the drains that lead out of the shops, scouring the flowing sludge and water.
These are the masikattu karmikulu (labour engaged in cleaning dirt and sludge), who hunt for small specks of gold and silver in the waste from the shops, which they retrieve and sell to goldsmiths.
A fistful of rupees
An elderly Chitrapu Venu said on a good day, he might get 200 mg that would fetch ₹500-₹560.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said there were around 70 people engaged in this business of scavenging for precious metals in Warangal, living in the run-down Ramannapet area.
“We have been into this for generations. My grandfather and my father were into this and now it is my turn. We do not know any other work and hence carry on with this,” he said.
Sowram Kumara Swamy explains that they form groups, each entrusted with a specific task. One group sweeps the roads, while another takes the shuttered shopfronts, and still another gets into the sewers. At the end of the day they pool their catch, and distribute the money after selling the retrieved metal.
The reclaiming is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack — with stench and slush thrown in. The workers first use a huge magnet to separate iron bits from the sludge. Then they add nitric acid to further clean it and finally add mercury to separate the gold. The residue is then taken to a goldsmith.
Chilakamarrri Narasaiah, in his sixties, is an expert at filtering the metal from the sludge, say his friends. With practised ease he gets into the drain, stops the water and collects the slime, apparently unmindful of the unhygienic conditions. After two or three pan loads, he gets down to filtering the gunk. “Now young boys are refusing to get into the sewers. Since I am habituated, I do not have any problem. It is for the bread at the end of the day,” Mr. Narasaiah said.
Unwelcome profession
Though Mr. Kumara Swamy and his friends do not see the work they do as demeaning, their families are not so accepting. “I have two daughters who are studying in a polytechnic and intermediate first year respectively. They feel this work is taboo and they cannot introduce me to their friends. I am seriously thinking of quitting but I have no clue what else to do,” he said.
Though members of the Scheduled Castes, the masikattu karmikulu have been unable to get free education and job reservations due to lack of awareness.
“Most of the boys are school dropouts and they come into this vocation to earn some money,” said Mr. Venu, whose only son Rahul is in high school.
According to Mr. Kumara Swamy, instant money is another lure for the boys. At the end of a good day, they make a minimum of ₹500, sometimes more. “The work starts early and ends at noon. By evening, we get the money,” he explained.
Goldsmith Mattewada Ajay Kumar says its a symbiotic relationship with these workers. “Because of them, our bazaars are clean. Even before the municipal staff come, our streets are cleaned,” he explained.
