HYDERABAD: Shabana Begum was an expert diamond cutter drawing a monthly salary of `19,000, till recently. A person with disability, Shabana was content with her earnings. She had been in love with her colleague Saidulu, also a person with disability. The couple soon got married and was busy planning their little family. Little did they know that someone defaulting on loans worth thousands of crores would cut short their future and happiness sustained by just a few thousands.
Shabana and Saidulu were employed at Gitanjali Gems SEZ in the city outskirts. After the company’s promoter Mehul Choksi’s name emerged in the multi-thousand crore PNB fraud case, the SEZ was shut down and 600-odd employees were rendered jobless, including Shabana and Saidulu. Making matters worse, the employees were not paid salaries for the last two months. Neither did they get their PF or any other benefits. Amid all this, the couple had a bigger worry -- they were expecting a baby.
With both their incomes gone, the couple was pushed to abject poverty. Saidulu did odd jobs, like working with catering contractors as a helper, to sustain his family but that barely helped. They suffered for three more months without a regular job. And then a few weeks back, Shabana died in labour at a government hospital; she was in the ninth month of her pregnancy. So did their child.
Inconsolable, Saidulu says he would have been able to provide better healthcare to his wife had his former employers released their provident fund money for the last 8 years.“We could not afford a private hospital. As the company was shutting down, the contractor who hired us refused to pay our PF amounts. Forget pregnancy care, we did not even know where our next meal would come from,” says Saidulu.
This is the story of just one family. Most people who lost jobs at the SEZ, who are all expert diamond cutters with years of experience, have now turned into daily wage labourers, earning a meagre `400 on days they are lucky enough to find work.
While the diamantaires named in the bank fraud cases have left the country for better-off locales, it’s people who worked in their SEZ who have been reduced to daily wage labourers. Recently, an employment fair was held by the Rangareddy district collector in which 12 jewel and gems companies participated. But, not a single one of these diamond cutters, most of them with over 10 years experience, was given a job. Of the 600 people who lost their jobs at Gitanjali Gems SEZ, 280 are persons with disabilities.
Now, most of them frequent nearby labour addas hoping to get some work. “Early in the morning we go and sit at Tukkuguda, which is 10 km away, waiting for contractors. If we are lucky, we will be picked for day’s work at any work sites, or function halls,” says K Vasanth Rao, a person with disability. The workers say they are still hopeful of some respite but aren’t sure if they will last long enough to see that happen.
“Recently, our colleague Tirupathiamma, who used to work in the jewellery shining department with a monthly salary of `16,000 died of kidney failure. We did not have the money or resources to take her for dialysis or treatment,” says G Mallesh. “We have disabilities, but we have been trained in one particular vocation. No one wants to give us jobs,” says Mallesh.