Manhole worker slogged to educate kids

A worker who died cleaning a manhole on Tuesday was anxious not to let his children end up in a job like his.

Tatta Thavitayya, 28, was one of the three men who choked to death in C V Raman Nagar. His wife Ganamma, 25, arrived in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

She said he initially built manholes and drains as the wages were good and work was easy to come by. Gradually, he started getting scavenging assignments. He didn't like it one bit, but soldiered on. The couple’s priority was to get the children to study.

“We moved to Bengaluru eight years ago but I went back to ensure our two children were admitted to school. We wanted them to be educated, and not illiterate like us,” Ganamma told DH. The family is so poor she had to borrow money even to travel to Bengaluru. “How are we going to fight the case? We have left everything in the hands of God,” she said.

Dantha Yarrayya, 35, also died on Tuesday. His wife reached Bengaluru on Wednesday. Thavitayya and Yarrayya hailed from Srikakulam district in Andhra Pradesh. The family of the third victim, Kore Anjaneya Reddy, is yet to arrive from Prakasam district, also in the same state.

Body identification
The families of Thavitayya and Yarrayya went to Baiyapanahalli police station and completed the formalities. At 4 pm, they reached the Bowring Hospital mortuary and identified the bodies.

Yerramma, 30, wife of  Yarrayya, and their children Manikanta, 6, and Divya, 2, were dumbstruck when they heard the news of his death.

“He was the sole breadwinner in our family. We don’t know what to do now. Life has been unfair to us from the time we were born,” Yerramma lamented. Yarrayya had been a sanitary worker for 10 years and not a day went by him when he didn’t regret the nature of his work.

He had come to Bengaluru three years ago with his wife Yerramma, and had been living in a makeshift shed in Doddanekkundi near Marathalli.

Yerramma works as a construction labourer. In January, the family went back to their village for Sankranti.

Last week, Yarrayya returned to Bengaluru and asked Yerramma to join him after a few days, saying there wasn’t much work for her in the city.