Karimnagar: He worked as a hamali while his wife rolled beedis until a few years ago. The going wasn’t easy, but their adversity provided food for the table. When the family’s sole source of income — the man of the house — became ill and was unable to work, everything went horribly wrong.
The life tale of Mamindla Srinivas, a local of Konaraopet mandal's Kolanoor hamlet, is tragic if not dramatic. A few years ago, Mamindla Srinivas, a resident of the Konaraopet mandal's Kolanoor hamlet, travelled to Sircilla town with his wife and three young children — two girls and a boy — in quest of work. He began working as a hamali after moving to the nearby village of Thukkaraopally, and his wife Manjula assisted him by rolling beedis.
The family managed on the meagre income the parents brought home while the three children attended a government school up until Srinivas' illness four years later. When he was admitted to a government hospital, the medical staff informed him that he had a stomach and lung infection and required treatment.
Manjula, Srinivas' wife, spent all the money they had saved to buy him medicine, but as the days went by, his health deteriorated and for the past four months, he had been bed-ridden. The couple's two school-aged daughters, Suchitha and Ruchitha, started to worry about their frail, bedridden father and how hard their mother was working to care for him while still trying to make money by rolling beedi.
On the advice of their teacher, Ruchitha and Suchitha asked minister K.T. Rama Rao, who is also Sircilla MLA, for help. They wrote Rama Rao a letter describing their family's precarious situation and pleading with Rama Rao to save their father.
Manjula spoke to the Deccan Chronicle while obviously upset and acknowledged that she had had numerous challenges over the preceding four years in caring for her husband and children. "I have already spent Rs 2 lakh and am unable to bear the medical costs any more. There won't be any food on the table if I don't roll enough beedis each day. I'm no longer able to afford the medications needed to save my husband,” Manjula said as she pleaded with Rama Rao to help the family.
