VIRUDHUNAGAR: A few days ago, a candidate contesting from the Virudhunagar Lok Sabha constituency appeared at Rengasamuthrapatti village of Mamsapuram to seek votes but instead of doing a door-to-door campaign, as one would expect, the candidate didn’t even step out of the vehicle.
This did not surprise K Periyakaruppan (44), a firecracker unit worker and a resident of this town which has a significant Schedule Caste (SC) population. In May 2023, Periyakaruppan’s daughter S Muthulakshmi lost her husband to a firecracker unit blast in Oorampatti village of Sivakasi.
“I can hardly remember any MLA or MP visiting our area, except during the time of election,” said Periyakaruppan who is worried about his daughter’s safety as she also works in a cracker unit to run the family which includes her two children aged six and seven.
Like other SC residents in the locality, Periyakaruppan’s family too didn’t choose this work. The work chose them. “After my husband’s death, I was provided with a solatium and was assured a job. Despite several attempts to reach out to authorities, I couldn’t get the job and ended up working at the unit to make ends meet,” said Muthulakshmi.
Ever since the candidates of this constituency filed nominations for the 2024 parliamentary elections, their promise to address the plight of cracker unit workers has echoed all across Virudhunagar, Sivakasi, and Sattur assembly segments which have over 6.7 lakh voters. However, most of the workers, especially SC community members and women from rural areas, have no hope. Neither their elected representative nor the state or union governments had listened to their demands. They are stuck in a loop of working at cracker units and risking their lives as no other option is available.
One such worker is Mariammal (24), an SC woman from Pallapatti of Sivakasi, who lost her mother in a cracker blast in 2005. Mariammal and her two elder sisters were forced to drop out of school, while studying in Classes 5, 8 and 10. At the age of 19, she got married to S Sundarraj, an SC man. Little did the mother of two know that she would encounter a similar tragedy again. In May 2023, while her husband was mixing chemicals at the Ilavarasi cracker unit in Oorampatti village, an explosion occurred and he died on the spot.
Just three months after this, Mariammal had to take up the same job. “It was a hard decision but I was left with no choice as the government didn’t provide the job they promised. Every time I enter the unit, I think of death and tell myself I might not return home,” she said.
A few months ago, the district administration identified 756 students who dropped out from Classes 10, 11, and 12 in the 2023-2024 academic year. With a total 315 students, Sivakasi and Virudhunagar blocks recorded the highest number of dropouts.
A 44-year-old SC man from Pallapatti, where the majority of voters are from the SC community, pointed out the prevalence of casteism which has been hindering their growth. “There have been several instances in which we were denied loans to start small businesses just because of our caste as the officials assumed that we wouldn’t be able to settle the amount,” he said.
Recently, some women workers of the units near Alamelumangaipuram started attending classes like jute bag manufacturing, hosted by a Self Help Group. However, many had to discontinue owing to the 16-18 km distance from their village.
Kasthuri (32), who managed to complete the 45-day course, is still unsure if she could make a decent profit out of the business. The workers stressed the need for the government’s intervention in supporting them to grow businesses by procuring finished products.
S Jayanthi, another resident, pointed to the lack of facilities in the locality to occupy and impart skill on children that made her take up a job in the cracker unit years ago. “There are at least 15 firecracker units in the village, but no centre for students to learn any extracurricular activities or skills,” she said, adding the recently-established typewriting institute has been a source of relief. The district also doesn’t have any government engineering colleges and the Virudhunagar assembly segment doesn’t have an arts and science college.
Will the next MP bring a ray of hope to the life of these workers? Will they be able to work without the fear of death at least for a day? Only time will tell.