Kottayam: Every day, before the break of dawn, a familiar scene quietly unfolds at Kaduvakulam Junction. Long before the rush of vehicles and the arrival of migrant workers, 60-year-old Radha, a sanitation worker under the Panchikkadu Panchayat, is already hard at work, sweeping the roads clean with her aide and relative, T T Shibu (Kochumon).

Radha begins her day at 2 am and it’s not a time chosen at random. By 5 am, the industrial hub begins to buzz with activity. Crowds swell, vehicles line up and the chaos of the morning makes cleaning nearly impossible. So Radha has found her own window of a few precious hours in the dead of night when the streets are still .

Since it's still dark during those early hours, Shibu accompanies her, providing company and safety. Her commitment to the job is deeply personal. “Whatever work you take up, you should do it neatly. For that, I have to come at this time,” she says, simply and sincerely.

Radha took up the job a year ago, stepping in after her predecessor resigned due to age-related difficulties. For her cleaning duties, she receives a modest salary of ₹3,000 a month. Once her morning task is done, she often goes on to take up other labour to support herself.

Until recently, even the Panchayat authorities were unaware of Radha’s early-morning routine. It came to light when Panchayat President Annie Mammen received a phone call from Radha at 2 am. She was calling to report that the Kaduvakulam Junction had no functioning streetlights and requested that the matter be taken up with the KSEB.

Surprised by the timing of the call, the President asked why she was at the junction so early. That’s when Radha revealed her daily ritual. A patrolling police team, too, once stopped in astonishment upon seeing her cleaning the road in the dim hours of the morning.