Dhali Bheel, is at a stage in her life where most people becomes dependant on their offspring. However, she still works as a daily wages labourer on a brick kiln near Shadi Large, a city east of Badin district. She believes that in a joint rural family system, everyone must contribute to assure survival. Come may rain or sun, Dhali Bheel works from dawn to dusk to support her family.

The day we first met, she had missed work as she had to prepare their hut for the year’s monsoon season. Supported by her two daughters-in-law and a daughter, she had brought in mud from a nearby pond on a wooden cart. They were diligently lapping the roof and walls of the hut with a thick layer of mud.

She continuously encouraged her coworkers, saying, “girls, you are doing a good job. Keep it up. We are almost done.” I was astonished to see her working with such energy at her age in the sweltering heat of May. I stood there transfixed, watching them work. She came up to me and said, “Why are you upset son? Do you want some water? This has been our way of living for long. We have become used to it.”

There are 10 to 15 brick kilns along the border between Badin and Tharparkar districts.

“My family has been living here since the 2010-11 floods. We all work at the brick kiln for Rs 300 a day,” she said while cleaning her hands with a rough cloth.

Dhali Bheel was born in a small village Tando Allahyar district in 1960. A good part of her life was spent as a peasant on lands of various landlords, wandering from one village/ town to another in Sindh for the bread and butter of her family.

Dhali has four sons and two daughters. Her husband died ten years ago after battling cancer. Since then, she has been the head of her family. Three of her sons work in factories in Karachi and Kotri. The fourth lives with her and works at the kiln. Her daughters are married. They live in the same settlement.

If anything happens to anyone in this poverty-stricken settlement of some 175 households of Bheels, Kolhis and Oadhs, it’s Dhali Bheel who sees them through the crisis. Irrespective of whether they need to go to a hospital, jail or a court, she is always with her community all the way. Occasionally, she acts as the head of the settlement, settling disputes and making decisions on community matters. Dhali is viewed in her community as amma – a mother figure and is deeply respected.

It is through her sheer efforts that children of this remote, unregistered rural settlement got a two-room primary school built by an NGO where 45 children of the socially neglected community now study free of cost.

Dhali told TNS, “Resistance is in my blood. We, the untouchables of Sindh, have a long history of suffering and injustice. When I was a child, I saw the cruelty of local landlords towards my parents. I decided not to remain silent.” Dhali remembers how her children suffered the pangs of poverty. She says she is determined not to be silenced. “I revolted against the system,” she says.

Showing scars from injuries to her arms, hands and forehead, she says, “During cotton-picking at a field near Tando Allahyar, I fought with the landlord over his ill behaviour. These are the marks from that day.”

“A few days after that incident, we all quit and shifted to another place. As we had left the harvest unfinished, the landlord did not pay us,” Dhali recalls mournfully, “It’s hard for a peasant to leave a harvest. We nurture the crops like a child.”

Dhali has many stories of resistance to share. She tells TNS, “Working on the lands of a landlord; my family was attacked because I had raised my voice against the ill-treatment of peasants. My neighbour Kariman Oadh came over along with some other women and rescued us.”

I ask,” How do you spend time in private jails as bonded labour?” She says, “It was during imprisonment in private jails in various parts of Sindh, that we faced the worst cruelty.”

In 2011, she and her family settled here, alongside the brick kiln. Since then, she says, they have been much freer. While poverty has never left her family alone, the torture and ill-treatment Dhali and her family have witnessed in the past have left indelible scars on their minds.

The writer works in Mithi, and writes about the social and environmental issues. He can be reached at abbaskhaskheli110@gmail.com