Breast Tax

Breast Tax or Mulakkaram was a Tax imposed on lower caste Hindu women if they wanted to cover their chests including their breasts in public in the Kingdom of Travancore ,now part of Kerala. Nangeli was a Ezhava woman who lived in the early 19th century at Cherthala in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore in India. She questioned the mulakkaram (breast tax) system that existed during that time, by which women of lower caste were required to pay a tax to cover their bosom in public. She refused to either uncover her bosom or pay the breast tax. When the pravathiyar (village officer) of Travancore asked her to pay tax, she chopped off her breasts and presented them in a plantain leaf to him.[1] She died the same day due to loss of blood.