the Sezela Barracks is 89-year-old Poinamma Pillay, whose father had three wives and eleven children (three daughters and eight sons). "We all grew up in Sezela barracks where we had to share communal toilets and bathing facilities with other neighbours," she said. "It was a hard life and my grand-father, who was from India, didn't want me to attend school. He was of the view that even if girls get educated, they must finally get married and serve their husbands. "I was married at the age of elven to my husband who was from the Beneva sugar estate nearby. We stayed in Beneva for some time before we moved to Lower Sezela and Esperanza. "I had ten children: four boys and six girls," she said. Her husband, two sons and three daughters are now deceased. She now lives with a daughter in the New Delhi area of Sezela. Another field hand and sugar factory worker who grew up in Sezela barracks is 74-year-old Chellan Chinappen. He retired in 1997 after working for Illovo Sugar for 44 years. He was part of a large family of four brothers and three sisters. His father, Chinnakanu, and mother, Muniamma, moved to Sezela barracks from the Nagoli sugar estate when he was about ten-years-old. He attended the local Sezela State Aided Indian School and started work as a field hand at the age of fifteen. "Life was very tough for all of us where we all had to live in compounds made of wood and iron and had to use communal toilets and water. "It was only sometime later that the company built the block houses. But we still did not have inside toilets and water. For many years we had to stand in long queues to use the toilets and bathing facilities. It was not good. "Only after many representations and petitions that the company thought we deserve our own toilets, water and electricity," said Mr Chinappen. Mr Chinappen, who was the chairman of the Sezela Barracks Indian Council for 20 years, said in the early days about 20,000 people lived in the Sezela Barracks, Lower Sezela, Upper Sezela, Bazley and Brake Barracks. Like other sugar estates, Sezela residents had also built their own temples and churches. "Today there are only about 200 families living in the old Sezela barracks and in the recently-established New Delhi area," he said. A number of young