Eleven women who work together as sanitation workers in India pooled their money in June to buy the equivalent of a $A4.60 lottery ticket because they could not afford the cost individually.
Last week, they won. The jackpot was $A1.85 million, or more than $A1 million after taxes – an enormous sum for workers who spend their days collecting non-biodegradable household rubbish and building public toilets.
The women said they would settle loans and pay overdue bills with the money. Credit: Screenshot/India Today
Lottery drawings are famous feel-good stories because they make people rich overnight, but these winners might be among the most deserving in history. Most were in debt after taking out loans for medical treatment, their children’s education, dowries or other essential expenses that they could not afford on a wage of roughly $A4 a day.
“I’m swimming in debt, so this money will be a big relief,” said one of the winners, Leela K, 50, a mother of four daughters. “I will finally have peace of mind. But my tension will vanish only when the money comes into my account.”
Five of the winners also happen to be from social classes whose members were once deemed untouchable by the country’s hierarchical caste system. Leela, for example, is from the Dalit community, a class of about 300 million Indians whose members face widespread mistreatment and violence, even after winning a series of landmark constitutional protections over the years.
The 100 million-rupee lottery jackpot would not be a particularly big draw in many countries. In the United States, for example, a Mega Millions jackpot climbed to $US1.25 billion after no winners were drawn on Tuesday. But in India, a nation with a per capita annual gross domestic product of about $A3600, it’s a colossal fortune.
The Kerala women pooled their money to buy a $4 ticket – a price equivalent to their daily wage.Credit: Screenshot/India Today
The 11 winners were especially lucky because the southern Indian state of Kerala, which has run the lottery since 1967, had made the recent drawing a “bumper prize” edition, which increased the jackpot during the summer monsoon.
News of the winning ticket was reported earlier by the BBC and other news outlets. In India, the story has reverberated far beyond Kerala as one of hope in the face of immense challenges.
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