Eleven women from India can look forward to a big lottery win. The group from the state of Kerala scooped up a whopping 100 million rupees, the BBC reports – that’s the equivalent of 1.1 million euros.
The win is a sensation for the women above all because they have not exactly been on a bed of roses financially so far. On the contrary: they work physically hard, collect non-biodegradable waste in the neighborhood for little money. Such worries should now be a thing of the past. The women only found out about their luck one day after the draw. “We never expected to win so much money,” one of them told the BBC.
The women have been enthusiastic lottery players for a long time, and they regularly join together to buy a ticket as a syndicate and try their luck. They have already won smaller sums, this time it worked with the really big jackpot. The lottery ticket cost 250 rupees, which corresponds to the daily wage of a worker. Some could not even raise enough money to pay their share of the lottery ticket, but the rest contributed more.
The Indian women say that the money they receive for their work is barely enough to live on. Most of them have taken out loans, for example to enable their children to get an education. Some have lost their husbands or their homes, others have worries about the future because of their husbands’ unemployment or their children’s illnesses. With their share of the big win, everyone can now build a much more comfortable life.
After taxes are deducted, the jackpot is still 63 million rupees (690,000 euros). Each winner’s share is more than 700 times what they earn in a month. With that they could hang up their work – but the lucky ones don’t think about it. The day after they found out about their win, everyone returned to work on time. “We have decided one thing,” one of the women told the BBC. “We will not quit this job because it was this community that made us rich.”
Sources: BBC / The India Times
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