“Many labourers from the rural areas of Odisha migrate to the brick kilns of Telangana, and we also came here along with our relatives to find work for our survival.

I grew up in a small agricultural family in the Nuapada district in Orissa. We were extremely poor and my parents got me married at a young age when I had no clue about life. My husband used to work in the agricultural fields while I would take care of the home. Life moved on and over time we had two kids. But things slowly changed from bad to worse due to droughts. It became extremely difficult as we had two young children to take care of and my husband sustained a knee injury at the workplace. It wasn’t easy. That’s when I decided that I’d do everything in my power to get my family out of this situation.

Over the next few years, I took up any work I could find, before starting working at this
brick kiln site. My daughter is studying in Class 7 and my son is in Class 4. Every morning, I wake up early, cook for my family, send my children to school and report to work by 8:30. I still can’t believe it’s been over ten years since I started working and I have made sure that we don’t rely on only one income source.
Hopefully, one day, all this hard work would pay off when I could see my children working in the respectable fields. Until then, I have made a promise to myself that I would never give up!”