Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SS)
Bantwal, Feb 9: This homemaker sells sacks of puffed rice (Mandakki) that she carries on her head and makes a living. She is no ordinary woman. She is also a member of the Grama Panchayat.
Meet Lakshmi Devamma, who hails from Doddalli in Chintamani taluk of Chikkaballapur district, who is also a GP member supported by the BJP of Kotagal gram panchayat.
She has been living on B C Road for the last 17 years and all her house records are in Chikkaballapur.
Her younger sister and husband are also into the same trade. Devamma's husband Hanumanthappa visits Bengaluru once a week and takes home puffed rice to be sold by his wife. His relatives also live near B C Road in the Thumbe environment who are engaged in selling puffed rice to make a living.
Devamma and Hanumanthappa are blessed with a son who is currently pursuing his first year of undergraduate course back in their village.
Devamma sells puffed rice throughout the month but also makes it a point to attend the general body meetings of the GP every month.
She discusses problems pertaining to her ward and seeks relief and assistance for her electorate. Devamma, who belongs to the Koramachetty community contested the Kotagal GP polls with the support of the BJP on the ST quota. By polling 1500 votes, she had won the elections by a big margin. Despite the completion of two-and-a-half years of her term, she has not stopped selling the commodity. Devamma goes about selling puffed rice carrying sacks of it on her head to various places. When voters of her constituency call her out of necessity, her husband Hanumanthappa attends to them. She also makes it a point to spend time with the electorate whenever there is a general body meeting or on other occasions and gets all the necessary work done. Devamma says her husband takes over all her responsibilities once she returns to her home on B C Road.
Devamma starts her day in the morning at 6 am when she carries a sack full of puffed rice on her head only to sell the whole thing before she returns home in the evening. She also visits every taluk in Dakshina Kannada district to sell puffed rice. Sometimes, she also pays visits to fairs in villages to sell the commodity.
Devamma is well known to people living in taluks as she visits taluks every 15-20 days.
Though her husband owns some agricultural land in the village the produce that she gets is insufficient. She says her family is lucky if there is some produce left after the floods once the agricultural activity begins during monsoon.
Devamma says she will continue to sell puffed rice which has become important to her to eke out a living. She says her family continues to live in a rented house on B C Road since the last 17 years with the cooperation of several people.