VILLUPURAM/KALLAKURICHI: 60-year-old Oiyaan was on the verge of tears. The consolatory words of his fellow agricultural labourers did little to wipe the dejected look off his frail, weathered, and sunburnt face. He had just been visited by a representative from a private bank in Vanur to remind him that he had defaulted on his son’s education loan and he knew the representative would come back next month also with a much sterner tone.
“I don’t have money to pay the bank. My son is an engineer but doesn’t have a job. I don’t know what I’ll do to pay the remaining three lakh,” Oiyaan said, as he finally got up from his haunches to gather another load of peanuts for the women to de-stem and pack in gunny bags.
Oiyaan, a life-long agricultural labourer, makes Rs 150 a day whenever he is able to find work and his plight is an accurate representation of most Dalit agricultural labourers in Villupuram and Kallakurichi. “We have toiled in the fields since we were children but we made sure our children went to school and borrowed money to send them to college with a hope they’d find jobs which will ensure repayment of loans,” said K Chandra, another worker, explaining that most workers in Katrambakkam and the neighbouring villages were unable to repay education loans they had taken as their children are also working as labourers or in sugar factories nearby.
This has sparked a silent chant for an education loan waiver in Villupuram and Kallakurichi, where employment is scant. “I studied BSc Mathematics in Chennai but on getting married and moving to Villupuram, I can’t find any employment here,” said 24-year-old Vinayaga Selvi, as he helped her mother-in-law remove peanuts from their stems.
“We’ll vote for the party which waives our education loans,” another worker chipped in, claiming that she did not want freebies or houses.Interestingly, education loans are also a problem for people of more privileged communities. “A bank representative told me they would put my picture on the bank notice board and shame me for defaulting on just one instalment of his son’s education loan,” said N Radhakrishnan, a senior AIADMK leader from Vanur, claiming their treatment of socially and economically backward communities is much worse.
Sriram, a 19-year-old from Viriyur near Kallakurichi, is planning to quit his engineering course, because of lack of placements in his college in Salem. His mother lamented that she owed the bank over Rs 2.5 lakh. “I am going to write competitive exams and find a government job so I can pay off the debt,” Sriram said, claiming there was no point having an engineering qualification without a job.
Both AIAMDK and DMK have announced education loan waivers and economists have raised concerns over the effects of waiving Rs 17,000 crore of unpaid loans.But in these districts, people claimed they might end up as paupers if the government failed to either waive the loans or offer suitable employment that will enable them to repay loans and regain their dignity. Economists have raised concerns over the long-term effects of waiving Rs 17,000 crore of unpaid loans