‘Mackenna’s Gold’ of Andhra Pradesh: Dalits’ hunt for yellow metal loses sheen

PRODDATUR: At the break of dawn, at least a hundred sweepers pick up their brooms and start dusting the narrow streets of Proddatur town. They are not sweeping to keep the roads spick and span in this town, 27 km from the district headquarters of Kadapa, but doing so in search of gold. Surprised?
35-year-old Subba Lakshmamma, a dalit, is one of them. She earns Rs 1,000 per week hunting for gold extracted from the dust.Like in the 1969 Hollywood film ‘Mackenna’s Gold’ where a US marshal leads a gang of bandits hunting for a legendary cache of gold in the territory of the Apaches, Lakshmamma has been doing this ‘job’ since she was young. “For generations, our family is into this work. My husband has passed away. So, I work extra hours to make ends meet,” Lakshmamma told TOI. She used to earn Rs 2,000 a week — that was two years ago.

Proddatur is well known for its gold and cotton industries and hence is called ‘Second Bombay’. It is also referred to as the ‘Town of Gold’ because of the large-scale gold business that takes place here. However, with corporates setting up gold jewellery showrooms in small towns across the country and jewellery making turning hi-tech, the business of goldsmiths in Proddatur has come down. This, in turn, hurt the gold hunters here whose earnings have fallen foul of bad times.
The work of extracting gold from dust on the streets and ashes of burnt papers used in the bullion trade is known here as ‘Masi Kattu’ (Masi is ash and Kattu is charm). When the goldsmiths bath and wash clothes, the gold powder remnants go into the drains, spills on the streets and that is where the role of Masi Kattu workers comes into play.
Lakshammam’s daily routine — like other Masi Kattu workers — includes collecting dust from the streets and gold shops and taking them to Adarsh Colony where she resides. Adarsh Colony is inhabited by gold hunters and diggers and surrounded by clogged drains reeking of unbearable smell. The colony has around 100 households and 400 people depend on Masi Kattu. The residents wash the dust and segregate gold using aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, and mercury.
Bala Narasamma, a sweeper, said they stock the dust for a week to 10 days and then extract gold from it. “We get into our job between 4 am and 5 am and go home by 8 am after dusting the streets. We used to make Rs 300 a day. But, we are struggling to earn the amount now,” she said.
The Dalit workers divide the streets and gold shop complexes family-wise. In return, as a favour to gold shop owners and goldsmiths, the workers clean the streets and complex areas with water after dusting.
Goldsmith R Kishore said Proddatur is known as ‘Second Bombay’ because the town has 6,000 shops that deal with gold business. “Not only people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, NRIs also come here to buy jewellery. Most of jewellers and goldsmiths live and work from the same building,” he said. Locals said the income of Masi Kattu workers is directly linked to the goldsmiths’ labour. “When we don’t have any work, Masi Kattu does not yield any gold,” Kishore avers.
Surendra, 22-year-old son of Subbarayudu, a part-time contract employee in Rayalaseema Thermal Power Plant, works in the morning to help his mother at a gold shopping complex. Surender says, “To feed seven members in the family, I have to do both the jobs. Some of the families in Adarsh Colony collect filth from the drains and extract gold.”
B Rammohan Rao, president of Proddatur Arya Vysya Sabha, and vice-president of AP Gold and Diamond Merchants Association, said the Masi Kattu work has come down since a majority of the jewellers are getting readymade jewellery from Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Surprisingly, the workers are not aware of the fact that prolonged exposure to heavy metals like mercury could cause neurological, cardiovascular and endocrinal disorders. “We are not mindful of disorders related to mercury. We are cautious while dealing with nitric acid and mercury,” Surendra reveals.