'First Covid Hit, Then Bulldozer': Tea-Seller's Death Note On Money Crisis
NDTV
The devastating impact of the Covid pandemic and related restrictions on low income groups has been illustrated in several studies.
Kalu Rai, 55, sold tea on a cart at an intersection in Madhya Pradesh's Jaisinagar. Last night, he was found hanging from a tree at the same spot where he brewed tea daily.
A note in the pocket of his trousers recounted the crushing financial crisis that had driven him to the extreme step. In the note, Rai wrote that he ran a tea shop that shut down after the Covid pandemic struck, plunging him into a financial crisis. As restrictions were lifted, he opened the shop again, but before business could pick up, his shop was razed as part of an anti-encroachment exercise.
He tried to make ends meet by running a tea stall from a cart, but failed. Rai wrote that as the debt burden kept growing, he could not take it anymore. "Nobody is listening. What do I do? There is only one way: suicide," he wrote.
The 55-year-old was father to a son and three daughters. The son helped him at the tea stall.
