Fight against odds: Driving tractors, this woman helps her dad in farming

The woman Selvakumari (23) of Kattalampatti village near Ettayapuram in Thoothukudi district is a role model for many others in the neighbourhood.

Selvakumari’s father Muruganantham works in the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) and has seven children. Selvakumari is the second child and she got married recently. 

As her husband works in Dubai, she is living with her paternal family and has a one-year-old child. However, it did not deter her from learning to drive tractors and helping her family. 

Speaking to DT Next , Muruganantham said earlier he had bulls to use for farming, but as days passed, they were replaced by tractors and during the peak season, it was difficult for him to find drivers for the vehicles.

Also, tractor drivers demand more money as daily charges and so he could not undertake farming. It was at such a critical juncture that he found Selvakumari was able to drive tractors. Though initially he had doubts whether she could drive, she excelled in it. Now she takes care of ploughing the field and farming, said Muruganantham. 

Selvakumari said that when there was no farming activity in their field, one of their cousins working in Chennai taught her to drive the tractors. Though initially her father did not approve of her learning to drive, later, seeing her skills, he allowed her to drive the vehicles. Now, she has trained two of her younger sisters as well to drive the tractors and they too are helping the family in farming, said Selvakumari.