Unemployment in A.P.’s Kuppam: a long journey to change Premium

Karuvadi Ganesh and Jayanthi endure long commutes to Bengaluru, reflecting the struggle of Kuppam residents due to unemployment.

Karuvadi Ganesh, 32, endures a gruelling four-hour commute between Kuppam, his hometown in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, and Bengaluru in Karnataka, every day to support his family of four on a modest monthly income of ₹18,000 as an electrician. For the past decade, this ITI diploma-holder has missed sunrises and sunsets in his native place, catching only fleeting glimpses during his daily train rides. On weekdays, securing a seat in the general compartment determines whether he sees the view or not.

Ganesh’s story mirrors the struggle of thousands, from youth to those in their 60s, due to a lack of job opportunities in Kuppam. “Unemployment in Kuppam is consuming people of all ages. Our smart-looking second-hand jackets conceal the shabby clothes beneath,” he says.

Jayanthi, 55, also makes the long commute to Bengaluru daily, as she works as a sanitation worker at a shopping mall in that city. She boards the Howrah-Bengaluru Superfast Express from Kuppam at 4.45 am and returns home by the Bengaluru-Jollarpettai MEMU Express at 7.30 pm. The last time she saw the sun in Kuppam was on Sankranthi festival in January. “I feel happy to see the sight on my way to work. Both my sons are drunkards. No girl is willing to marry them. My husband, who gets an old age pension, also drains the amount on alcohol,” she says.

Nearly 15,000 people use the railway stations of Kuppam, Mallanuru, Gudupalle, and Bisanattam in Chittoor district as their starting point to reach Malur and Bengaluru in Karnataka on a daily basis, hoping to earn a good income by late evening. Most of them work as daily wage earners, such as electricians, plumbers, construction labourers and sanitation workers. Women also join the workforce, trying their luck as housemaids in Bengaluru city and its suburbs. The ratio of daily to weekly commuters is almost equal, with about four trains catering to their needs in both directions.

The issue of unemployment at this tri-state junction, bordered by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, did not surface overnight; it has persisted since the pre-independence era. Besides, Kuppam has long faced an identity crisis, with many people unaware of its precise location and significance.

When Telugu Desam Party founder N.T. Rama Rao arrived in Kuppam riding his ‘Chaitanya Ratham’ (a modified Chevrolet van) for electioneering in the 1980s, people in the eastern parts of the then-combined Chittoor district thought he was campaigning in Tamil Nadu.

Again, when N. Chandrababu Naidu, the current TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, became Kuppam MLA in 1989, many believed he had won from somewhere in Tamil Nadu. Naidu’s victory from Kuppam in 1994 made little news. It was only in August 1995 that people realised Kuppam was part of Andhra Pradesh, within Chittoor district, as Naidu led the movement to oust Rama Rao, his father-in-law, from power. On September 1, 1995, Naidu took charge as the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh and the once-obscure Kuppam was catapulted to the status of a VVIP constituency.