HYDERABAD: Ask a Hyderabadi where to find Gudumba or Ganja in the city and they would promptly guide you to Dhoolpet. This image, however, has changed over past few months as the State Prohibition and Excise department cracked down on the business.
However, the crackdown on locals without an alternative source of income has left them anxious. Anger is palpable in the narrow by-lanes of Dhoolpet as residents who once sold Gudumba for a livelihood, complain that officials did not show them a workable alternative source of income.
Officials of Excise department conducted rehabilitation programmes for women and men involved in the business from decades. On Nov 21, 2016, 44 people were given 100 percent subsidised paper plate-making machines (26 in total), and four youth were provided taxis.
A few beneficiaries, however, complained that while the officials assured to find buyers of the finished paper plates, the products were never sold.
Shanta Bai, an elderly woman from the area, takes us through the labyrinthine by-lanes to her neighbour’s home to show the stacks of paper plates. She had run out of space to store the products. “They assured to find us buyers but did not stand by their word. Now that they have put a check on sale of Gudumba, they must show us an alternative source of income,” she rued.
Geetha Bai, another elderly woman from here, said while some beneficiaries were able to sell their finished products, a lot of them could not as finding a retail buyer is a challenge. “We used to prepare good quality liquor. If they want us to prepare better quality, we will. We are asking liquor distillation to be allowed since this is a business we can easily practice,” she said. When told that the state government was firm on eradicating Gudumba, she said, “We want a government job. We are ready to take up post of sweepers. But it has to be a government job.”
Not just daily living, education of children is also at stake here. Prabha Bai, mother of a teenage girl, said she is not able to pay her daughter’s college fee which amounts to `4,000. “She cannot attend college until the fee is cleared,” she said. Other women too retorted: “Now that we are sending our children to schools, this situation is forcing them to sit at home. If the fee is not paid, they will lose an academic year,” Shanta Bai said.
Dhoolpet’s assistant excise superintendent Anji Reddy said that though residents have not been assured of finding buyers for finished products, the authorities will help them out.
“People from Odisha set up 10 paper plate-making units in Dhoolpet and those who used to sell Gudumba started working at the units. We asked the Gudumba sellers if they wanted a business of their own, and they responded positively. Besides, the government is planning large-scale programme for instant rehabilitation.
Around 1,330 people from the locality would benefit from it,” Reddy said. He added that 260 people (men and women) enrolled for a programme to get trained in embroidery and ‘maggam’ design, and BPO training, which would start in a week’s time.