Footwear = seruppu / directed by Amudhan R P.

Produced and directed by Amudhan R.P.

This is a socio-cultural documentary on the lives of catholic Arundhatiyars (Dalits / harijans/ untouchables) of Dharmanathapuram, an old slum located at the heart of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India. The people of Dharmanathapuram are involved in making footwear, one of the traditional occupations of a dalit with in Indian caste based society. According to the presidential order 1950: para3, by the Union Government of India, dalits or the people from the lower caste in Indian caste system who do not follow Hindu religion (or those converted to Christianism or Islam) are not considered Schedule Caste (as any other Hindu dalits); and they do not have access to the reservations for jobs or in educational institutions or other support mechanism that otherwise are available to the Schedule Caste according to the Indian constitution. Besides the upper caste Hindus who have converted to Christianity also follow their caste based practices such as discrimination, exclusiveness, unsociability and at times violence against their fellow Christians who happens to be dalits. This film brings upon the discrimination and struggle faced by the catholic Arundhatiyars of Dharmanathapuramwho also face stiff competition in the economic grounds as mechanization in the footwear manufacturing continues to grow in the era of globalization.

In Tamil, with English subtitles.