Eleven women from Kerala, all municipality workers, jointly bagged the Rs 10 crore jackpot of the state government's 2023 Monsoon Bumper lottery. The women, who usually get Rs 250 per day for collecting non-biodegradable waste from households in Parappanangadi town in Kerala's Malappuram district, pooled Rs 25 each to buy the 250-rupee ticket for a monsoon bumper prize lottery in June this year.
All the women work with Haritha Karma Sena, which collect non-biodegradable waste from households and establishments, and then sends it to shredding units for recycling. This is the fourth time the group bought the bumper lottery ticket. They previously won Rs 1000 in Onam bumper.
Even as private lotteries are banned in Kerala, the government runs its highly-publicised programme - Kerala State Lotteries, which is the first of its kind in India.
According to a report by the Newsminute, the women do not intend to end their jobs as sanitation workers even after winning the lottery and said they will still work to keep Parappanangadi clean. They are supposed to get around Rs 63.6 lakh each, after paying the taxes.
“Eleven civic workers of Haritha Karma Sena, who stand at the forefront in keeping Parappanangadi clean, have won the Rs 10 crore lottery now. They are one of the most hardworking and dedicated teams working here, and we are happy that they won the lottery. Despite winning the lottery, they said that they would not stop working here, which is a mark of their dedication,” Parappanangadi Municipality chairman A Usman was quoted as saying.
The women will instead use the lottery money to pay off their debts. Ms Baby, 62, plans to build a house which was washed away in the devastating floods that hit Kerala in 2018. K Bindu, 50, will use the money on educating her 15-year-old daughter so she can get a good job, BBC reported. Leela, 56, will spend the money for her daughter's surgery.
