Joint Action Committee for Social Justice -UoH
Interview with Radhika Vemula and Raja Vemula, Rohith Vemula’s mother and brother, on life after Rohith and why social activism has become a driving force in their lives.
"That is where Rohith and I worked as part-time salesmen for three summers.” Gonta Grounds is where the annual exhibition is held in Guntur, and it was getting decked up for this year’s. Their salaries began at Rs.30 a day for Raja and Rs.40 for Rohith and went up by Rs.10 every year between 2006 and 2008 for working between 4:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. every day for two months. They were both in high school. Rohith manned a stall that sold women’s handbags while Raja sold belts.
In Guntur, away from the public gaze, Radhika says with quiet determination that she will be part of this movement “until her last breath”. She has been unwell. Raja says the doctors believe it to be a slow “paralysis of her right side”. Explaining her decision to support the students’ movement, Radhika says: “Rohith came to meet me on December 29, two days after I had moved to Hyderabad. He promised to buy a car within a year and to show me around Hyderabad. I imagined that situation and I looked forward to it fondly. But 20 days later, he was gone. This should not happen to any mother.”
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