Life changing outcomes from Tamil Nadu project
Over the last three years our project partner in India, the Tamil Nadu Labour Union, has worked tirelessly to help lift hundreds of Dalit and Tribal working people out of poverty. Thanks to their...
Category: Tamil Nadu
Utensil workers to form their own cooperative
Jeevanandhan’s days are spent in a lopsided hut down a back alley in Madurai, surrounded by metal bowls piled to the ceiling and stifling humidity. His whole life he has worked as a utensil...
Jaggery producers aim for independence
The small thatch roof structures nestled amongst the sugar cane fields to the west of Madurai city go largely unnoticed by passing traffic. But it is within these simple buildings that men and women...
Cremation workers continue their struggle
Meenakshi never chose the life of a cremation worker. Her husband was born into the job due to his caste and when he died 25 years ago, the responsibility for cremation work in her...
Dalit and Tribal Children’s Education Centres
In June 2017 UnionAID volunteer and NZEI Te Riu Roa staff member Gina Lockyer visited Tamil Nadu to evaluate the project run by the TNLU providing after school education to Dalit and Tribal Children....
Rag pickers freed from debt
Old coins, waste paper, copper, plastics, wire and other metals found in household rubbish have for years provided a meagre income for rag pickers from thirteen Madurai slums. But these Dalit workers have had...
Making a Difference in India: UnionAID project building better work and better lives
Everyday Senhol Mary starts out before dawn, walking for nearly an hour through the streets of Madurai to get to the house of the family she works for. Like millions of women around the...
Year 1 Countdown: Findings from our Tamil Nadu Labour Union (TNLU) Project
174 domestic workers trained Traditionally underpaid and often exploited, domestic workers in Madurai city have learnt how to use modern technology like washing machines, microwaves and food mixers. Through the TNLU training they now...
Better together: Education for all the family
From the slums of Madurai to the hillside villages of Kodaikanal, Dalit and Tribal children are proudly teaching their parents how to write their own names in a remarkable new UnionAID project. A total...
Education for the children of Dalit and Tribal workers
UnionAID’s cooperative and union building project in Tamil Nadu, will also provide evening education centres for the children of workers. These centres are being funded by NZEI TE Riu Roa. Dalit and Tribal children often...
