Women’s popular nightwear ‘nighty’ commands its price anywhere between ₹400 and ₹2,500, depending on its quality and design, but a person who breaks her back working at a sewing machine day in and day out to stitch a nighty has an income that is negligible.
A paltry ₹4 to ₹6 a piece is what more than 20,000 women in Anantapur district make. At a time when the neighbourhood tailor in any of the metro or tier-II and III cities would not oblige to even stitch a button for this paltry sum, these women hire sewing machines for ₹250 a month, buy sewing thread for ₹10 a spool that lasts long enough to put together 30 pieces.
In addition to this, they have to bear the rentals for the house where they work. Similar tales can be heard in four to five northern mandals of the district.
For Shaik Munni, a divorcee, and her sister, this meagre sum has been the only source of income. Her brother, who is a daily labourer, used to chip in, but even his avenues have dried up since March 22. The family of four used to manage to dish out 90 to 100 pieces a day, bringing them ₹400 a day, but now there are no sales and no orders for stitching those nighties.
There are 250 to 300 traders in Pamidi and Gooty, who employ between 10 to 30 women on this job and used to sell between 300 to 2,000 pieces a day on an average, exporting them to Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nellore, Vijayawada.