SRIKAKULAM: Around 80 girls from Srikakulam, Anakapalle and Rajamahendravaram are stranded at Pollachi near Tirupur in Tamil Nadu due to the lockdown. With no alternative, they have been staying in a spinning mill godown after the factory was shutdown. After the enforcement of nationwide lockdown, managements closed factories and provided temporary shelters to the workers.
The girls had migrated to Tirupur to work as tailors in readymade garment stitching units for survival almost eight months ago. As they have been staying in a godown in an unknown area, they are scared. With no cash in hand, they have been facing a lot of difficulties.
Initially the factory management provided food and other amenities to the stranded workers and they stopped it after the first phase of the lockdown. The family members of the stranded girls are worried about the security of their children.
"I had migrated to Tirupur to work in a readymade garment stitching unit about eight months ago," Pappu Tulasi of Bandaruvanipeta village in Srikakulam district told TNIE over phone. She said that of the 80 stranded girls, 40 are from Srikakulam district and the rest from Anakapalle and Rajahmundry. Just before the lockdown, about 10 girls left for their native villages.
"We work as tailors in Sunrise Readymade garments unit in Tirupur. After the enforcement of the lockdown, we were shifted to Vignesh Spinning Mill godown in Pollachi," she added.
"We have no money to meet even our basic needs. Neither Tamil Nadu nor Andhra Pradesh government is taking our plight into consideration," said Tulasi. Tulasi’s father Pappu Rama Rao sought the intervention of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the safe return of her daughter and others stuck in Tamil Nadu.