State Pulse: Andhra pradesh: Hanging by thread-II
Computer aided units drive Chirala farmers out of business Utter penury greets you in every house that has a loom. Twenty-three-year-old Sivasarada and his family, including his parents and ageing grandmother, put in an average of 10 hours of work a day to prepare 12 pieces of 8 m-long Pattamarapu for a Tamil Nadu-based export company. Still they earn just Rs 4,000 a month. In Jandrapeta village, weaver couple Sulochana and Rama Rao get Rs 2,400 for 36m of kurta tops. School dropout rates among the children in the community are high because of poverty and the need for additional labour.