Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University is regarded as one of the best universities in the country. While the University may be churning out a number of students ready for a bright future, its surroundings paint a different picture.
Just beside the compound wall of the University is a stretch of a temporary settlement.
Living in tents, close to four families have made this stretch their home. They spend their time and make a living by making stone grinders that are used in households. (Though a major number of urban households have replaced them with latest technology).
The lives of these people are spent in breaking larger stones into smaller ones, loading them into a truck, bringing them to their settlement and carving them into various sizes.
“We break the bigger stones into smaller sizes near Gingurthy village in Tandur, Rangareddy and bring them here after loading them into a truck,” says one stone grinder at the temporary settlement. And the trouble begins from the first step. “After spending one whole month in bitter weather conditions breaking the stones, we have to pay full charges to the landlord. This, even if we are unable to load the 20 tonnes of stones into the truck as per our agreement,” he explains.
The truck is also provided by the landlord. Payment increases if they plan to unload these stones in multiple locations.
Once the stones are dropped around the place they stay, men and women get on to the second part of the job – carving them into grinders.
“We can make two small and one large stone grinders a day”, says Ramulu another stone grinder.
Ask him how he came into the business, he responds, “This is something our forefathers have been doing. It runs in the family. It is passed on from generation to generation.”
And Ramulu has been doing it since childhood.
He also informs that for a person to be able to master the craft it takes six months to one year.
Along with the men who spend their time with stones, women too have responsibilities to fulfil.
A few women learn the craft from their husbands. Yadamma is one such woman. “I had to do it because I lost my husband,” she says with long pauses and a silent tear rolls down cheek. Her father, sitting nearby, says she suffers from regular fits.
Ramulu’s wife shares that after a long day’s work, “He asks me and my children to massage his body as he comes back with a lot of pain. We even have regular fights because of this.”
But they are left with no choice.
Ask them if the pain they go through is worth the effort?
“We hardly sell them. One or two stone grinders a day but not on a daily basis. A few get sold here. The women carry a few and sell them in nearby colonies,” says Ramulu.
They say they never heard of the word profit as all the money is spent for their basic needs. “You can see, how we are living. Tents are on the road,” says an older stone grinder pointing to the speeding vehicles on the road. He also adds that a few of them lost their lives while breaking the stones as they are exposed to a lot of dust.
The stone grinders question, “Why doesn’t the government take necessary measures so that we have decent life?
“I want to study and get a job. Any job that does not make me struggle as hard as my father. All, for nothing,” says Ramesh, Ramulu’s son, who is in sixth standard.