They had to go Dutch to buy a lottery ticket and are now laughing all their way to the bank. Eleven women workers belonging to a plastic waste segregation unit of the local municipality here paid less than Rs 25 each to buy a lottery ticket worth Rs 250 and won a jackpot of Rs 10 crore.

On Wednesday, the 11 women were wearing their faded green overcoats, rubber gloves and segregating plastic waste collected from households in the Parappanangadi Municipal godown when the big news came. The Kerala Lottery Department announced that the ticket purchased by the women after pooling money, because none of them could afford a Rs 250 ticket, was awarded the monsoon bumper- a whopping Rs 10 crore.

A large number of people flocked to the municipal godown premises here on Thursday to meet the lottery winners and congratulate them.

One of the winners, Radha, said, "The excitement and happiness knew no bounds when we finally came to know that we hit the jackpot. All of us are facing hardships in life and the money will be a relief to some extent to solve our problems." The women earn salaries between Rs 7,500 and Rs 14,000 as per the nature of their work with Haritha Karma Sena - a green initiative undertaken by the Parappanangadi Municipality.

Haritha Karma Sena is engaged in the collection of non-biodegradable waste from households and establishments, which is sent to shredding units for recycling.

Sheeja, the chairperson of the Haritha Karma Sena consortium at the Municipality, said Lady Luck had smiled on the most deserving people this time.

She said all the prize winners are very hard working and are the breadwinners of their families.

"Many have debts to pay...have daughters to marry off...or have to meet the treatment expenditure of near and dear. They are living in very humble households, fighting the harsh realities of life," she told PTI.

Interestingly, this was the second time the women had pooled money to buy a ticket.

"We had bought the Onam bumper last year after pooling money in the same way and received Rs 7,500. We shared the amount equally among us. It gave us the confidence to buy the monsoon bumper ticket this year," one of the winners said.

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