The elderly woman gazes wistfully into the distance, her hands curled over a basket of tobacco, surrounded by hundreds of cigarettes that she has spent hours rolling by hand. This poignant photograph is one of several taken by student Rashmitha T in her village in Tamil Nadu. The images feature her neighbors who make traditional Indian cigarettes called beedis. "No one knows about their work. Their untold stories need to be told," Rashmitha told the BBC.
Her pictures were showcased in a recent exhibition about India's laborers, titled "The Unseen Perspective," at the Egmore Museum in Chennai. All of the photographs were captured by 40 students from government-run schools in Tamil Nadu, who documented the lives of their parents or other adults. From quarry workers to weavers, welders to tailors, the pictures highlight the diverse and backbreaking work carried out by the estimated 400 million laborers in India.
In the Erode district of Tamil Nadu, Jayaraj S captured a photo of his mother, Pazhaniammal, at work in a brick kiln. She is seen pouring a clay and sand mixture into molds and shaping bricks by hand. Jayaraj woke up at 2 a.m. to take the photo because his mother starts working in the middle of the night. "She has to begin early to avoid the afternoon sun," he said. It was only when he embarked on his photography project that he truly realized the hardships she endures. "My mother frequently complains of headaches, leg pain, hip pain, and sometimes faints," he added.
In the Madurai district, Gopika Lakshmi M captured her father, Muthukrishnan, selling groceries from an old van despite being on dialysis. He has to go for dialysis twice a week after losing a kidney two years ago. "He drives to nearby villages to sell goods despite his condition," Lakshmi shared. "We don't have the luxury of resting at home." Nevertheless, she described her father as "looking like a hero" as he continues his grueling daily routine.
Keerthi S documented her mother, Muthulakshmi, who is the family's sole earner. At first, taking pictures with a professional camera was not easy, but it became more manageable after several months of training with experts. "I learned how to shoot at night and adjust shutter speed and aperture," she explained. Keerthi chose to focus on her mother's daily life, who runs a small shop in front of their house. "Dad is not well, so Mum looks after both the shop and the house," she said. "She wakes up at 4 a.m. and works until 11 p.m." Her photos depict her mother's struggles as she travels long distances via public buses to source goods for the store. "I wanted to show through photographs what a woman does to improve her children's lives," she added.
Mukesh K documented his father's work at a quarry over four days. "My father stays there and comes home only once a week," he said. His father works from 3 a.m. until noon, then resumes work from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. He earns a meager sum of about 500 rupees a day. "There are no beds or mattresses in their room. My father sleeps on empty cardboard boxes in the quarry," Mukesh stated. "He suffered a sunstroke last year because he was working under the hot sun."
The students also captured cooks at work and cobblers fixing sandals. Aged between 13 and 17, these students are learning various art forms, including photography, as part of an initiative by the Tamil Nadu School Education Department. "The idea is to make students socially responsible," said Muthamizh Kalaivizhi, the state lead of the Holistic Development program in Tamil Nadu's government schools and founder of the non-governmental organization Neelam Foundation. "They documented the working people around them. Understanding their lives is the beginning of social change," he added.