Youtube tutorials and a government scheme changes a brick kiln worker to a successful entrepreneur

A member of the Irula tribe overcomes obstacles to become a successful entrepreneur selling incense sticks and sambrani cups.

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.