A PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES

From being a bonded labourer for 25 years to panchayat chief, Priyamani has come a long way fighting odds

- SUBASHINI VIJAYAKUMAR

A dry mill and dusty air settling all around are an integral part of Priyamani's childhood memories. She remembers how her parents, hailing from the vulnerable Irular tribe, worked in one rice mill after another, the clatter of machinery being her lone lullaby.

"My parents toiled away their entire lives in the mill. My father died in the rice mill after being bit by a snake," recalls the 43-year-old woman who now serves as the president of Adigathur village panchayat in Kadambathur block of Tiruvallur district.

In her tenure of four years as panchayat president, M Priyamani has been a voice for the voiceless, working to better living conditions at the Irular colony within the village. Having spent the first decade of her life grinding away in mills, Priyamani cannot remember when exactly she began working. But even as a child, she was not sent to school. Rather, she was expected to work in the mill, falling prey to a vicious cycle of bonded labour that has oppressed Irulars for generations.