Chennai: Chinnasamy is 15 years old when he is sucked into a forced labor camp bound in a brick burning place.
His father had spent most of his life in the same place, like some of the elevator men before and afterwards in his village at Veeramanoor in Villupuram district.
As for women, they always get married before they are 16 years old, and become mothers before they become adults.
But life for Sangeeetha, Chinnasamy’s eldest child of three daughters, will depart for a long time from this tradition in the socio-cultural framework of the community.
At the age of 19, he was the first eliminate girl from the Vallam Block of Vereranamoor Panchayat, which consisted of 84 villages, for college.
Younger Sisters – Anita, 15, and Vidya, 10 – plan to follow in his footsteps.
Pressure Sangeeetha to graduate and find the work of achieving the attention of a sundari, a world vision volunteer in the nearest village of Nettarmangalam, who fought against child marriages and child labor.
And in 2018, he got a nursing university at Sri Rangapoopathi College in Villupuram, and helped some other children get a community certificate for college.
Sangeeetha, who was reunited with her parents at the age of seven, after they were saved from brick kiln and returned, believing this ticket for freedom would open up possibilities not only for her, but the whole community, from the history of labor is bound and poverty.
“I grew up listening to my father regret how he was forced out of school after class VII because of poverty.
My best friend, Sathya Easwari, who came to school with me, suddenly stopped after class IX was married.
He now has two children,” said Sangeeetha.
But after the pandemic, young friends, who are married must use a difficult manual workforce.
“Today, every family in this village supports my decision to follow a different path.
Some of them also started sending their girls to school,” Sangeeetha said.
He went to the house before 8 in the morning and took two buses to reach his studies in Alampundi at 9am, and took the same road back to reach the house around 5.30 in the afternoon.
Three sisters shared smartphones to take online classes, because parents went to cut wood or agriculture.
“Even if we don’t have enough to eat, we want to make sure the girls get their books and uniforms.
I’m sure this is the only way for them to lead a different life from us,” Chinnasamy said.
“They will get married when they become adults, no rush.” Sangeeetha wants to inspire the younger generation to pursue what they want.
“The college initially made me nervous.
I only saw it in the film, and believed that students had fun all day,” said Sangeeetha.
“But the real college is work, and I can’t stop until I find a dignified job and show my people what faith can do.”