govindamma-i-have-been-in-water-all-my-life

Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu

Jul 14, 2022

Govindamma: ‘I have been in water all my life’

Wading through the Kosasthalaiyar river near Chennai, Govindamma has been catching prawns since she was a little girl. Now in her 70s, she does it to support her family, despite her bruises and failing eyesight

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Author

M. Palani Kumar

M. Palani Kumar is Staff Photographer at People's Archive of Rural India. He is interested in documenting the lives of working-class women and marginalised people.

Palani has received the Amplify grant in 2021, and Samyak Drishti and Photo South Asia Grant in 2020. He received the first Dayanita Singh-PARI Documentary Photography Award in 2022. Palani was also the cinematographer of ‘Kakoos' (Toilet), a Tamil-language documentary exposing the practice of manual scavenging in Tamil Nadu.

Photo Editor

Binaifer Bharucha

Binaifer Bharucha is a freelance photographer based in Mumbai, and Photo Editor at the People's Archive of Rural India.

Editor

S. Senthalir

S. Senthalir is Senior Editor at People's Archive of Rural India and a 2020 PARI Fellow. She reports on the intersection of gender, caste and labour. Senthalir is a 2023 fellow of the Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme at University of Westminster.