CHENNAI: The growing medical industry might have remedies for many ailments but dhobiwallas in suburban Pallavaram still believe they have a cure in hand for most ailments affecting infants. They still follow the age-old business of selling donkey’s milk, which they believe is a cure for common ailments like cough, cold and sore throat for infants. And it is not for nothing that they are running the business for years — customers do queue up to buy small measures of the donkey milk for their infants, which they believe gives a remedy.
So, when 59-year-old Rani of Ponniamman Koil Street, Pallavaram, begins her day at 4am, she drags her donkey to the turning of the Sandhai Street, ties her to a piece of rock and sets up shop. For the woman, who had been doing this since her childhood, Rani claims she knows exactly the kind of ailments that can be cured with donkey’s milk. “Usually, some babies do not cry loudly when they are born. You can give donkey’s milk so that the baby’s voice comes out. The milk is also believed to have cosmetic use. You can apply the milk on a baby’s body,” she says. “Of course, the donkey’s milk is next only to mother’s milk,” she quickly adds. So, when her husband was alive, Rani would sell milk from 4am to 10am and then join her hubby in washing clothes. The donkey, of course carried the bulk of dirty clothes. But, after her husband passed away, she brings her adopted son Gnanasekar along with her to do business.
Around seven to 10 dhobiwalla families in Pallavaram sell donkey’s milk at the Sandhai Street corner, like Rani. They purchase the donkeys from a man in Vellore for `8,000 to `10,000.
Fifty grams of milk will cost around `250 and the dhobiwallas suggest that the milk can be filtered and given to the baby directly. “There was a time when we used to buy a donkey for `55 and later it shot up to `1,000.
Now, it’s expensive,” says Rani. They buy the donkey, sell its milk for five to six months and sell it back to the same man, from whom they bought the animal, for a lesser price and buy another donkey.
“Every day, we have two to three customers. After five or six months, the donkey will stop secreting milk and we give it back. But meanwhile, we also have to save money to buy the next one,” explains Soundari, another dhobiwalla, who had been selling milk for the past 15 years.
Earning a meager amount of `200 to `300 a day in washing clothes and another `500 to `750 by selling milk, they need to cut corners to save up for a new donkey as well as have enough tucked away for themselves. Every time they bring a new donkey, the animal takes time to get used to the new environment and, as a result, it kicks and at times even bites its owner. “Once, it bit me on my legs. I spent `350 for the treatment. It pains bad, even if it stamps your feet,” recalls Soundari as she ties the legs of her donkey to take milk. “The more food you give, the more it eats. But, you don’t have to spend much on that because you can even give the left overs,” Rani intervenes.
The dhobiwallas say that there are several in the city — at Saidapet, Aynavaram, near Poonamalle High Road, Kilpauk and Tambaram — who sell donkey’s milk.