In a quaint village nestling amidst lush green fields, A. Ayyanar, 36, his wife Baby, 33, and other family members sit under an asbestos roofed-shed, packing incense sticks (agarbatis) and sambrani (fragrance) cups.
By selling different versions of incense sticks and coloured sambrani cups made from saw dust, Ayyanar, a member of the Irula tribe and his wife, have been carving out an identity of their own in the region.
Once employed in a brick kiln in Avadaiyarpattu village near Vikravandi in Villupuram district, Ayyanar, and his wife, have now become successful entrepreneurs, and are proud owners of the ABK Mayil Mas Traders that sells across Tamil Nadu
For Ayyanar who has studied till class 8, this was not an easy journey. Earning a decent living was a big dream, but Ayyanar had to drop out of school and join his parents who were employed in the brick kiln in their village since 2008.
“The living conditions at the brick kiln were terrible. There were no specified working hours. Work began as early as 4 a.m. and continued till late into the night. We barely got a few hours of sleep before we had to wake up to get through another day’s grind,” he recalls. Ayyanar met Baby there, fell in love and married her despite stiff opposition from the families because they belonged to different castes.
The family was rendered jobless after the brick kiln closed in the wake of the lockdown imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Confined at home, Ayyanar watched videos on YouTube on manufacturing agarbatis at home, and contacted his friend Kumar from Tiruvananmalai. He scraped together ₹5,000 and decided to start his own enterprise and approached a couple of banks. But the banks turned him away rejecting his applications, stating that he would not be able to repay the loan, citing his community’s past credit issues.
Despite this setback, Ayannar persisted in his initiative and the tide turned in his favour with a nationalised bank sanctioning him an initial ₹3 lakh under the Tamil Nadu government’s Vazhndhu Kattuvom scheme.
“With this loan, I bought machines and raw materials. I started producing agarbatis under a brand name. However, the traders in Avadaiyarpattu were hesitant to buy from me fearing customer bias towards the Irulas,” Ayyanar says.
However, the couple did not lose heart and Ayyanar went online and popularised his products through the length and breadth of the State. His efforts bore fruit after a customer from Kanniyakumari placed an order for 10,000 agarbatis. His earnings doubled, and he encouraged other members of his community to join him.
Ayyanar was subsequently sanctioned a second loan, and this time he used the money to expand the unit and started making sambrani cups employing six persons. He has now started selling to wholesalers in Cuddalore, Villupuram and Kallakurichi districts and earns an assured income of ₹35,000 per month.
