Nandhini Vellaisamy
BBC Tamil
Sheik Hasan K.
Students captured workers at work, including a woman working in a turmeric factory
The elderly woman looks with nostalgia in the distance, her hands curly on a basket of tobacco, surrounded by the hundreds of cigarettes that she spent rolling by hand.
Photography is one of the several taken by student Rashmitha in her village at Tamil Nadu, starring her neighbors who make traditional Indian cigarettes called Beedis.
“No one knows their work. Their new stories must be told,” Rashmitha told the BBC.
His photos were presented in a recent exhibition on Indian workers entitled The Unseen Perspective at the Egmore Museum in Chennai.
All the photographs were taken by 40 students from the Tamil Nadu government schools, who documented the life of their own parents or other adults.
From career workers to weavers, welders to tailors, the images highlight the diversified and exhausting work undertaken by the 400 million estimated workers in India.
Rashmitha t
Rashmitha took this photo of his neighbor Rolling Beedis
Many Beedi rolls, for example, are vulnerable to pulmonary damage and tuberculosis because of their dangerous work, said Rashmitha.
“Their houses are drawing from tobacco, you cannot stay there long,” she said, adding that her neighbors sit in front of their house for hours driving beedis.
For 1,000 cigarettes which they roll, they earn only 250 rupees ($ 2.90; £ 2.20), she told the BBC.
Jayaraj s
Pazhaniammal often complains of body pain after working for hours in the baked
In the district of Erode of the State, Jayaraj captured a photo of his mother Pazhaniammal at work as a brick manufacturer. It is seen pour a mixture of clay and sand into molds and shape the bricks by hand.
Jayaraj had to wake up at 2 am to take the photo, because her mother begins to work in the middle of the night.
“She has to start early to avoid the afternoon sun,” he said.
It was only when he launched his photography project that he really carried out the difficulties she has in enduring, he added.
“My mother frequently complains about headache, leg pain, pain in hip and sometimes vanish,” he said.
Gopika Lakshmi M
Despite dialysis, Gopika Lakshmi’s father continues to sell his vehicle races.
In the district of Madurai, Gopika Lakshmi Mutdled his father Muthukrishnan selling goods in an old van.
His father must obtain dialysis twice a week after losing a kidney two years ago.
“He goes to neighboring villages to sell goods despite dialysis,” explains Lakshmi.
“We don’t have the luxury of resting at home.”
But despite his serious condition, his father “looked like a hero” while he continued with his exhausting daily routine, Gopika said.
Turn
Keerthi has captured the daily difficulties of his mother, who is the only bread in the family
Taking photos with a professional camera was not easy at first, but it got easier after months of training with experts, students said.
“I learned to pull at night, to adjust the shutter speed and the opening,” said Keerthi, who lives in the Tenkasi district.
For his project, Keerthi has chosen to document the daily life of his mother, Muthulakshmi, who has a small shop in front of their house.
“Dad is not doing well, so mom takes care of both the shop and the house,” she said. “She wakes up at 4 am and works until 11 pm.”
Her photos represent the difficulties of her mother as she travels long distances via public buses to obtain goods for her store.
“I wanted to show through photographs what a woman does to improve the lives of her children,” she said.
Mukesh K
Mukesh spent four days documenting his father’s work in his career
Mukesh K
Workers live in the career most of the week
Mukesh K spent four days with his father, documenting his work in a career.
“My father stays here and only comes home once a week,” he said.
Mukesh’s father works from 3 a.m. to noon, and after a brief rest, works from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. He earns a meager sum of around 500 rupees per day.
“There are no beds or mattresses in their room. My father sleeps on empty cardboard boxes in the career,” he said. “He suffered a sunburn last year because he worked under the hot sun.”
Govarthanan LS
Students also captured cooks at work …
Suggestions r
… as well as shoemakers fixing sandals.
Students, aged 13 to 17, learn various forms of art, including photography, as part of an initiative of the Tamil Nadu School Education Department.
“The idea is to make students socially responsible,” said Muthamizh Kalaivizhi, state program of holistic development in public schools of Tamil Nadu and founder of the non -governmental organization Neelam Foundation.
“They documented workers around them. Understanding their lives is the start of social change,” he added.
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