Covid forces advocate, a first gen graduate, back to weaving baskets

Covid forces advocate, a first gen graduate, back to weaving baskets

Vincent.Arockiaraj@timesgroup.com  07.06.2020

He burned the midnight oil to become an advocate, but the coronavirus has shattered his dreams forcing him back to his traditional job of making bamboo baskets.

K Uthamakumaran, 34, who hails from the tribal malai kuruvar community, is a first-generation graduate of his family. After completing his law graduation in 2010, he had been practising at the Pattukottai court in Thanjavur. He has been unable to earn anything for the past two months as all courts were closed due to the lockdown. With his last bit of savings of ₹10,000 exhausted, Uthamakumaran was left penniless by the end of May. He stays at Thennankudi in Peravurani taluk with his wife and seven-year-old son.

“Since I had to eke out a living, I was ready to do any work. But the only other work Iknow was my ancestral vocation of weaving baskets from wild date palm fronds. After completing Class XII, I was helping my father Kalimuthu in the business as it was my family’s source of income. So, I started to make baskets,” he added.

Besides using it to store things in villages, such baskets are used to filter water from cooked rice at functions. “People come over to our house to buy various things made of palm fronds. Then we started to sell in weekly sandhai (markets). I made 10 baskets. Normally a basket is sold for ₹100 to ₹120. If two people are engaged in it, we can make 12 baskets a week and earn ₹1,200 to ₹1,500,” he says. He admits it is not enough to run the family as he has been earning about ₹25,000 a month as an advocate.

Around 2 lakh malai kuravars live across the state made a living from weaving baskets or sharpening grinder stones. “The government must provide some financial assistance to the community,” he said.

BACK TO ROOTS: As a lawyer, K Uthamakumaran earned ₹25,000 a month. He barely makes ₹1,200 a week now