M Palani Kumar is a 2019 PARI Fellow, and a photographer who documents the lives of the marginalised. He was the cinematographer for ‘Kakoos,’ a documentary on manual scavengers in Tamil Nadu by filmmaker Divya Bharathi.
Cyclone Nivar inundated Semmanjeri – but the misery that followed is nothing new for the people relocated to this area to make way for development projects.
Her mornings go in clearing garbage in Kotturpuram’s streets for Chennai Corporation, but Rita akka, a differently-abled contract worker, spends her evenings feeding and talking to her canine companions.