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Ch. Prashanth Reddy

A cloth seller in Anantapur district whose business has been badly hit by the drought situation.

ANANTAPUR, Aug. 28

DROUGHT affects the entire economy and lifestyles of the people, and not just agriculture and rural households. This was evident in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh where falling incomes and dwindling purchasing power of people have affected businesses of all kind, except cheap liquor and money lending.

The spectre of drought looms large over Anantapur which receives low rainfall even during normal monsoon years.

Whether it is the retail business of footwear or textiles or even vegetables, the situation is the same — sales are down. The famous silk merchants of Dharmavaram who cater to the needs of rich and middle-class people also say that the business has declined by about 40 per cent.

The only exception to this trend is the cheap liquor business that has registered a 15-per cent rise in sales. According to Venugopal, owner of Padam Selections, a footwear store, farmers are just not coming to the town. Enquiries at the town bus stand reveal that the floating population has declined considerably. His sales have dropped by 15 per cent even though he is offering a 20 per cent discount on the footwear generally purchased by farmers.

In fact, the turnover of footwear business in Anantapur, which stood at Rs 1.8 lakh per day last year, has declined to Rs 1.2 lakh at present, he says. There are no takers for high priced footwear, he adds. For instance, Padam stores used to sell at least six pairs of branded shoes, Lotus Bawa, earlier. Today, the combined sales of all the footwear shops in the town would not account for two pairs of top brand shoes.

A vegetable vendor at Mamdabad shandy in Amadaguru mandal, Chinna Rayudu, says that people are not purchasing vegetables that are costly. The farmers are not buying tomatoes that are being sold at around Rs 10 per kg. Instead, they are buying beans and brinjals priced at Rs 3-Rs 4 per kg. As a result, his daily turnover, which stood at Rs 400 during the corresponding period last year, has now declined to Rs 100.

A grocery store owner, Naser Basha, says that there is a 50 per cent fall in his business. His daily turnover is down from Rs 3,000 to around Rs 1,500. Even a seller of agarbathis, Ramanjaneyulu, says that he is selling just Rs 50 worth incense sticks daily currently while he used to gross over Rs 100 per day last year.

A small-time textiles trader of T. Kuntlapalli, Fakruddin, says he has incurred heavy losses as people are not coming forward to purchase cloth. He carries a variety of cloth on the back of his bicycle and sells them in about 40 villages. However, he is unable to make a business of even Rs 100 per day during the last three months, much less than Rs 500 to 600 he used to gross earlier.

"People are saying that they have no money to purchase new clothes", he says adding that he has piled up stocks worth Rs 30,000. He had borrowed money to purchase the stocks and now he is not earning enough to clear the interest charges, he adds.

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