Renuka, a 45 year old mother from Nambikkai Nagar, a colony sandwiched in the blocks off the Marina Loop Road lost her housekeeping job some 4 months ago.
She was employed by a Korean family in MRC Nagar, hardly a kilometre away from her hearth.
Badly hurt by the dwindling income and savings, Renuka has begun to grind idli maavu at home and sells it along the Loop Road after dusk.
“I use the rice given at my ration shop and buy ulundhu paruppu from a store,” she says. The maavu prices start from Rs.15 and on most days she manages to get the amount she stocks in a plastic bucket sold off.
Ambika is another resident of this area who also worked in a large apartment in MRC Nagar but lost her job in January. Now, she makes vegetable brinji at home and like Renuka, hawks the food on the Loop Road side.
“At least this brings us some cash for daily use,” she says.
Elsewhere, women who have lost their jobs at local area residences are engaging in small efforts to earn in these trying times. Those who used to sell fresh fish, now dry fish and sell the karvaddu.
- Report by Kavitha Benni
