Sisters strive to make a living selling sugarcane juice

Phisalbanda: The sugar cane crushers are a common site across the city during summer. The sale of sugar cane juice soars during the sunny days and some places in city have become landmarks by virtue of these juice stalls. Charminar, Afzalgunj, Koti Women'c College junction, Malakpet, Mehdipatnam are few spots popularly known for sugar cane juice centres. 

Sugar cane juice vendors earn handsome during summer following the high sale but this does not apply to all. Some people struggle a lot to crush one glass of juice and earn living. K Sravani, a school dropout from Kanchanbagh, runs a sugar cane juice point near Midhani in old city. The wooden made crushing machine crushes only few glasses after a tough job of five to ten revolves. The wooden crusher has one shaft that requires two people to move in order to crush the sugar cane sticks. Sravani takes help from her elder sister in the job and runs the stall.

Sravani said that they bought the crushing machine several years back and take this out every summer. "We cannot afford to pay electricity bills and for the electricity powered crusher hence this wooden crusher. I am helping my family financially so that my younger brother can study further,” she said.

It is a very tough job to crush sugar cane with this wooden crusher but Sravani believes in looking at the positive side of the story. She said that there were many people who prefer sugar cane juice from wooden made crushers since there would be no iron. She said that her spot was not at a popular place and she can earn only Rs 300 or some more but she said that she will not stop working. This wooden crusher takes 10 minutes to make five glasses of sugar cane juice with lot of hard work. The two sisters however are working unyielding to the situations and hardships to run their show. 

BY M M Farooqui