V. Sudha, 40, who is speech and hearing impaired, recently pledged all her jewellery after her savings ran out. She was employed in an automobile company, earning ₹10,000 a month, but she lost the job as a result of the lockdown.
“My husband has a cleaning job, which will get us ₹8,000 a month now. But with two children and ₹6,000 a month as rent, I don’t know how to run the family. I have asked people for a job as domestic help, but none replied,” she said. Persons with speech and hearing impairments said they struggled to get employed but even those were lost now as several companies remain closed or have decided to downsize drastically.
‘Nowhere else to go’
Sheikh Mohammed, 54, with speech and hearing impairment, said his landlord asked him to vacate since he was unable to pay rent.
He has been surviving on porridge every day, and occasionally gets onions and tomatoes.
“All my friends are hesitant to lend me money. If I’m forced to leave this house, I have nowhere else to go and have no job as well,” he added.
G. Naveena and Durga Devi had jobs in private companies. “They asked me not to come after the lockdown began. My mother, a construction worker, is also getting old. I thought this job would better our lives but it was gone too soon,” Ms. Durga Devi said.
K. Priya, a cook, who was employed in a hotel, said,“I have been asking if people can hire me as domestic help. Every day, when I wake up, I think of the uncertainty of how this day will go and where to go for money. This is a routine now.”