Tamil Nadu teenager captures Indian laborers in pictures

The elderly woman looked into the distance, curls her hands in a basket of tobacco, surrounded by hundreds of cigarettes she had rolled by hand for hours.

This photo is one of several photos of Rashmitha T, a student in her village in Tamil Nadu, whose neighbors have made traditional Indian cigarettes called Beedis.

Rashista told the BBC: “No one knows what they do. Their stories need to be told.”

Her photos were published in a recent exhibition about Indian workers, titled “The Invisible View of the Egmore Museum in Chennai.”

All photos were taken by 40 students running a school in Tamil Nadu, who documented the lives of their parents or other adults.

From quarry workers to weavers to weavers to tailors, these pictures highlight the variety of breakthrough work done by an estimated 400 million workers in India.

For example, many Beedi rollers are susceptible to lung damage and tuberculosis due to their dangerous work, Rashmitha said.

“Their houses are scattered with tobacco, you can’t stay there,” she said.

She told the BBC that they only earn Rs 250 ($2.90; £2.20) per volume per volume.

In the Erode district of the state, Jayaraj S took pictures of his mother Pazhaniammal as a brick manufacturer. She was seen pouring the clay and sand mixture into the mold and then hand-shaping the bricks.

Jayaraj had to wake up at 2 a.m. to take pictures as his mother started working late at night.

“She had to start early to avoid the afternoon sun,” he said.

He added that it was only when he started his photography project that he truly realized the hardships she had to endure.

“My mother often complains about headaches, leg pain, hip pain, and sometimes fainting,” he said.

In Madurai district, Gopika Lakshmi M caught her father Muthukrishnan for sale from an old van.

After losing her kidneys two years ago, her father had to dialysis twice a week.

“Although he was dialysis, he drove to a nearby village to sell goods,” Lakshmi said.

“We don’t have the luxury of resting at home.”

Despite her severe health, Gopika said her father “looks like a hero” as he continues to move forward every day in hard daily work.

Students say taking photos with professional cameras is not easy, but after months of expert training, it becomes easier.

“I learned how to shoot at night, adjust the shutter speed and aperture,” said Keerthi, who lives in the Tenkasi district.

For her project, Keerthi chose to document the daily life of her mother Muthulakshmi, who owns a small shop in front of the house.

“Dad was not good, so mom took care of the shop and the house,” she said. “She woke up at 4 a.m. until 11 p.m..”

Her photos depict her mother’s struggles as she travels on a long public bus to provide merchandise to the shop.

“I want to show through photos what a woman does in improving her child’s life,” she said.

Mukesh K spent four days with his father, recording his work in the quarry.

“My father stays here and only goes home once a week,” he said.

Mukesh’s father worked from 3 a.m. to noon, after a short break, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. He made a meager profit About 500 rupees per day.

“Their room has no bed or mattresses. My dad slept on empty cardboard in the quarry,” he said. “He suffered from tanning last year because he worked under the scorching sun.”

Students aged 13 to 17 are studying various art forms, including photography, as part of the Ministry of Education initiative of the Tamil Nadu Schools.

“The idea is to make students socially responsible,” said Muthamizh Kalaivizhi, the national head of the overall development plan for public schools in Tamil Nadu and founder of the NGO Neelam Foundation.

“They documented the workers around them. Understanding their lives is the beginning of social change,” he added.

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