CASE 1: SENTHIL AND HIS FAMILY

Keelaiyur is the village where we observed certain lifestyle which is totally different
from lifestyle of urban people. In this village we met Senthil (35), who works as labour in
PRP quarry. He has a wife named Jeyapriya (34) and three children (two daughters and one
son). Elder daughter name is Vaishnavi who is studying 8th standard and Dharani studying 6 th
standard in Government school, Keelaur. Saran is the only son of Senthil who is 4years old.
Senthil was born and brought up in Keelaiyur, whose father was also labour in quarry.
He has an elder brother who lives in the same village. He studied till 9 th standard in
Government school Thaniamangalam. Later Senthil gave up his education due to lack of
interest. His brother was working in quarry at that time when he left schooling. So he was
able to join in the quarry for daily wage work. When he was working in quarry he happened
to meet Jeyapriya. Senthil fell in love with her at the age of 18. After serious of consequences
from both their families they got secretly married in Malai kovil.
While working in quarry senthil earned sufficient amount of money to meet his needs,
so he was able to provide education for his children in matriculation school in
Thaniyamangalam. But Matriculation school charged more fees though they gave importance
to the education of their children by reducing their needs. His wife Jeyapriya was active
member of SHGs (Self Help Group) and some more non-profit organisations. During his
work period, he met with a small accident in which he got injured in left hand. But he was
treated well by the management in a good hospital and all his medical expenses are borne by
the management. This was a good thing about the quarry companies. Because they take care
of their employees and provide all facilities.
BACKGROUND OF THE VILLAGE
Keelaiyur village is located in Melur taluk of Madurai district 30kms away from
Madurai city. There are around 3000 households in the village. The families under poverty
line and schedule caste have been allotted to the houses availed by the government. This
village has granite mountain as its natural resource through which many factories are located
in and around melur. The people in this village re-operating in producing granite based
products. The main occupation of the villagers is quarry and stone cutting.
It is a developing village in which about 1000 families live with an average of 5
members in a family. As an advantage, the village has proper transport facility and water

facility. It also has a government school at its entrance which provides education up to the
class of 8to maximum of children living in Keelaiyur village.Keelaiyur is one of the villages,
where the provisions of the state government and central government like, free television,
fan, grinder, etc., has reached well. This distribution helped in bringing many positive
changes to people living at the village as they struggle hard to overcome the poverty in their
daily life.
Peoples life at Keelaiyur was comparatively good in past days when the nearby
quarries were well operated. But, the closure of the quarry made people to fall into distress as
they wholly or maximum of them depended only on the work they get in that quarry. Some
were also unable to get other jobs at present, and as a result, their debts towards the education
and lending had been increased. The daily and emergency needs of the people at Keelaiyur
had been satisfied by the quarries.
Nearly 35% of the families have altered their houses into concrete houses and tiled
houses. 100% of the houses has obtained power connection on their own cost. The houses in
the villages are supported by government schemes in constructing solar power panels. About
65% of the houses have television sets. There is no problem between peoples of different
caste. This village has adequate water supply that comes from bore wells. The village has
adequate number of shops, small hotels which provide basic needs of villagers.
The village has government school in which around 300 students are pursuing their
studies from 1st standard to 8th standard and comprises of 13 teachers. For High schooling and
other higher studies it depends on Melur higher secondary school. Most of the villagers are
sending their children to the school. Smart school system has been running successfully for
the past 2 years. In addition to the quality education this school also supports for
extracurricular activities like scout, Red Cross, sports etc.
INFRASTRUCTURE
The village has adequate drinking water supply that comes from nearby tank. For
other domestic purpose they take water from the tank and from nearby wells. There are many
temples in and around keelaiyur. The village has a panchayat guest house for both men and
women. There is also an information centre which helps strangers to know about the village.
TRANSPORT FACILITIES

In order to meet their basic needs villagers have to travel nearly 1km and if they need
to purchase clothes, sweets etc they have to travel to Melur which is 3km from keelaiyur. In
order to cover these distance without spending much of energy and wastage of time, adequate
number of transport facilities are available such as bus facility and share auto facility
SENTHIL STATUS IN 2010
His life was good going and he was able to satisfy the basic needs of his family with
the wage of Rs.230 per day. During that time government has ordered all quarry businesses to
be closed for the safety of nearby villages. This incident made a huge impact in Senthils
routine life as stone cutting was his primary source of income. His life became miserable and
he was not willing to leave his own town since he was brought up here. This forced him to
look for other means of income and to cut down his expenses. As a result he changed his
children from private school to government school
LIFE AFTER 2010
As there was no employment available in quarry business he was forced to do mean
jobs for daily wages which he did unwillingly. This work was not permanent and his
employment depends upon seasonal demand. Now he is not able to meet out his daily
expenses and he is running his family by getting loans. Mostly he was at home. This effect of
closure in quarry business has affected not only Senthils life but also life of everyone who
were working in quarry businesses. Most of them had moved on to other places where quarry
business in done and few of them have shifted to other jobs
Senthils wife Jeyapriya, a member of SHG is able to earn some income to run the
family. His family has invested in chit funds from which they would get some dividend.
During his free time he used to play cards under a big banyan tree and occasionally booze.
They usually play card for a bet of Rs 50 to Rs 100 which he used to win sometime. Now he
engaged in constructing his own house with the help of materials provided by the
government. He used to 2 hours in the morning and evening for building his house. He
usually likes working during night hours rather than morning.

The financial status of the family does follows

Before closure of Quarry

After closure of Quarry

14000

9000

2000

Income of Senthil per month

Income of Jeyapriya per
month

Income opportunities available for Senthil and his family in the village and the surroundings.
Before closure of Quarry

After closure of Quarry

Construction Works

450/day

500/day

Quarry work(fixed wage)

230/day

Quarry works (variable work)

5/stone

5/stone

Agricultural activities

200/day

250/day

The variable work involves manual labour, where large stones are fragmented into
small and equal size stones which can be sold in the market at a rate of Rs.5. While the quarry
was operating the availability of stones was high so roughly 40 stones are sold by Senthil
during a day and yielding revenue of Rs.5000 per month.
After the closure of quarry the wastage stones have been reduced drastically to around
100 stones per month, yielding revenue of just Rs.500 a month.

The expense of Senthil is as follows

Description
Electricity
Dairy
Vegetables
Oil
Rice, Staples and Sugar
Gas
Petrol
Vehicle and House maintenance
Interest
Miscellaneous expense
Stationery and education
Total

Amount
150
600
1000
400
500
450
800
250
500
900
250
5850

Thus the financial statements show that Senthil is able to run his family by meeting
the expenses through income. But during some occasions when immediate and huge expenses
are required he has to borrow money. So with the closure of quarry, Senthil is able to make a
living for his family with some reduction in expenditures, but still it cannot restore the life
quarry had given him.