Women narrate their suffering to Sharmila
Women of self-help groups and handloom weavers narrated their individual untold stories of suffering to Sharmila during the 13th day of her Maro Praja Prasthanam at Syndicate Nagar and Brahamanapalle Cross Road in Anantapuram district on Tuesday.
Most of the women told her they are not in the know of things to ascertain whether or not the 25 paisa interest loan scheme is in vogue. “When I took the loan, they said it was on 25 paisa interest but when I was repaying I was asked to pay two rupee interest. We were told some of the interest will come back to us but some say 25 paisa interest loan scheme has been revoked. We don’t know what to do,” an old woman told Sharmila.
Another woman, a handloom worker, told Sharmila at Syndicate Nagar that she took a loan of Rs.15,000 through handloom society during Chandrababu Naidu regime but she was forced to pay the loan by selling her Mangalasutra.
“In fact, though there was no loan waiver during YSR regime, we once got an insurance to the tune of Rs.18,000,” she told Sharmila, adding she is not in a position to believe the promises of TD president Chandrababu Naidu on loan waiver.
Again, some more women told Sharmila that officials had registered their names for pension under ‘Abhaya Hastam’ during the YSR regime but after his death their names were removed. “We are all handloom workers but we are not getting any support from the Government for our survival. We came to know that all our names have been removed from the lists of pensioners,” they told Sharmila.
Sharmila told them that the Abhaya Hastam scheme would be revived when YSRCP comes to power under the leadership of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
(Updated on Oct 31, 2012)