It was 250 rupees, which in exchange is 2.75 euros, the price they paid for the lottery ticket. They bought it halfway, among 11 women who work collecting the non-biodegradable waste left in the containers by the families of Parappanangadi, a city of 70,000 inhabitants in the state of Kerala, south of India. That 250 rupees is exactly the daily salary they earnwhich comes from the tax that households pay monthly for cleaning.
The group, which bought the ticket in June, is made up of veteran women who are around 70 yearsand other young people who are in the score. with his salary they barely reached the end of the monthand many had to face debts that they had contracted to be able to pay for their children’s education and support their families.
But their fate changed radically last week, when they discovered that they had hit the jackpot: 100 crores (more than a million euros). One of the BBC’s correspondents in India went looking for him and has spoken to the lucky ones.
“I’m still in a state of shock. We had to check with several people to make sure we had won all that money and we still couldn’t believe it. We all come from families too poor with a lot of debt,” says Radha, 49, who says it’s not the first time they’ve been lucky in the lottery.
“Once, we won a prize of 1,000 rupees and we shared it,” he says. Radha lent Rs 12.5 to one of her classmates, Kuttimalu (72), who did not have enough money to contribute to the fund.