HYDERABAD: With their pair of bullocks dead in an accident and the family not in a position to buy another pair, two brothers in Domeda village in Telangana’s Mulugu district put the yoke around their shoulders to plough their field this monsoon.
Their financial condition is such that they have no choice but to take the place of the bullocks.
The elder of the two, Narendar Babu, has BSc and BEd degrees and has worked as a teacher for a few years. His younger brother Srinivas, with a masters in social work (MSW), worked as a computer operator in an educational institution in Hyderabad.
“But we found it difficult to even make ends meet,” Narendar Babu told TOI. He left his job as a mathematics teacher four years ago and settled in his village because the pay was not good enough .
“The last two years have been tougher due to Covid. My brother and I have worked as coolies to get whatever amount we could under the MNREGS,” said Narendar. Srinivas got back to the village as the institution he was working for shut down in the lockdown and he could not find work.
Besides not having the money to buy bullocks, hiring a tractor was also not affordable. That is when the brothers decided to take the place of the bullocks and plough the field along with their father. “It was tough but we had no choice,” said Narendar, who is married and has two children. He has applied for a ration card but has not got it so far.
Their father, Sammaiah, tried to buy a pair of bullocks with the Rs 60,000 he had saved.
But a healthy and young pair of bullocks costs up to Rs 75,000. The family gets ‘Rythu Bandhu’ from the Telangana government but they need a little more to cultivate the land and to grow paddy.
Sammaiah said, “I worked hard and got my sons educated. I had hoped that they would get government jobs. But that did not happen. Both my sons returned home as they had no means of livelihood. I have exhausted all my savings. Financially, our family is in a bad situation.”
