Vidial

Our member Santhakumari gives an account of Elango na’s speech during Thesathirku Thol Kodu

I was very much inspired by Mr.Elango Rangaswamy’s speech.

He inspired one and all using the story of his life. He talked about the topics

1) How he became a Panchayat leader?

2) What were the factors which affected him?

3) Who all inspired him?

His speech was very uplifting. To put in the words of Parthi anna, Elango anna is a “Yatharthawathi” (Practical person). He is a real hero. Gandhi’s dream of village development has been achieved in Kuthambakkam by Elango Anna. Each and every cell in his body talks about strengthening the panchyats (local self governance). If someone really wants to do something for this society, he/she has to start from the bottom. Without developing/working in the villages, we cannot bring the changes in India.

Kuthambakkam — the name itself contains “Kuttram” due to liquor addiction of men. Around 95% of men in this village were addicted to alcohol. The main job of men in this village was “sarayam kaachuthal” or ‘distilling illicit liquor’. Most of them regularly beat their wife and children. There is also a rigid caste system in the village. This scenario affected anna’s heart very deeply. After Anna’s hard work in the village, around 85% men have come out of that work.

Anna is a B.E graduate and got a good job as a scientist (He first worked in ONGC and later CSIR). He quit his job in 1993and came to the village. He contested in Panchayat election in 1996 and won. He then started planning his schemes and working towards them. Now in Kuthambakkam, each house has toilet facility, good water, roads and other basic needs for life. There is great progress on rain water harvesting also. He did not stop here. The above things were not enough for the people of the village. There had to be a constant source of family income to run their lives.

Elango anna started small economical activities in village like a rice mill (Kuthambakkam – 3 pogam nellu vilayum bhoomi. i.e. harvest takes place thrice a year), weaving, burner unit, soap unit, oil unit etc. All this generated employment especially for women who also handled heavy machines. Anna made the people develop with “dignity”. The school he started there is running smoothly. It is a middle school and teachers are very happy to work there.

Samathuvapuram – This idea was proposed by Elango anna. Mr.Karunanidhi, the then chief minister of Tamilnadu liked this concept very much and extended this idea to all of Tamilnadu. (Thesathirku Thol Kodu took place in the Samathuvapuram only).

Now his prime focus is development of students, women empowerment, solid waste management and tree plantation. He has made Kuthambakkam a model village. One of the most noticeable outcomes of his work is the Panchayat academy. It’s a training centre for Panchayat leaders, women’s self help groups etc

Anna expressed some interesting thoughts about the program “Thesathirku thol kodu”. The majority of participants were vibrant youth. The average of people age is around 30.

I want to tell in his words:

‘Oru village or town or city nu illama Desathiku thol kodu kka nu teams vanthu irukkanga.Desam engira periya visaythukkaga work panna youth people Entha alavukku commitment oda irukka poreenga?’ At what level you are ready to sacrifice? Sacrificing your job, your parents and your loved ones?

Anna told one good folk story, which we all know, but don’t introspect.

பறவைகள் சில இரை தேடச் சென்றன.

வேடன் ஒருவன் வலை விரித்துக் காத்திருந்தான்.

பறவைகளுக்கு இரைகள் தெரிந்தது, வலை தெரியவில்லை.

இரை தின்பதற்கு முயன்றப் பொழுது வலையில் சிக்கிக் கொண்டன அவை.

வலை விரிக்கிப்பட்டது விதி, மாட்டிக்கொண்டதும் விதி.

எப்படி மீண்டெழுவது? நமது நாட்டின் நிலமையும் இது தான் அன்றோ?

பறைவகளின் தலைவன் சொன்னது, “கால்கள் தானே அகப்பட்டுக் கொண்டன, சிறகுகள் இல்லையே?”

பறைவகளுக்கு தெளிவு பிறந்தது, பறந்தன், நன்றாய் வாழ்ந்தன.

நாம்?

Reg. commitment anna told one good sentence:

Vidhai(seed) entha alavukku thannai mannil pinaithu kolkiratho antha alavukku maramaga marugirathu.(The tree is as strong as the bond created by the seed with the soil) how much committed are we? On the second day of the program Anna stressed that ‘if you are working towards your goals, it’s well and good. Do not be too much concerned about the success of your efforts’.

All in all each and every minute spent with Elango anna was a liberal education on a gamut of topics ranging from grassroots development to rural empowerment. We were very fortunate to hear the first hand experiences of such a pioneer in rural governance. And it has certainly rubbed a lot of positive energy into all of us.

Thesathirku Thol Kodu (தேசத்திற்கு தோள் கொடு), an initiative by Shanti Ashram Coimbatore, is organized every year with an objective to ‘Gather people & organizations who are inclined towards the betterment of our society and thereby contribute to the progress of the country and our human race.’

The event is attended by people working in different fields. This forum served as a platform to about know people working in other areas and helped in strengthening the social welfare network.

Vidial coordinated Thesathirku Thol Kodu – 2009, which was held at Kuthambakkam – Periyar Samaduvapuram, Chennai on April 25 & 26.

Kuthambakkam, near Chennai, has been a model Panchayat not just for to its unrelenting appetite for new ideas, but for innovations and implementation of concepts. Just Google Kuthambakkam or Mr. Elango Rangsamay, you would know why it was chosen as the location for this year’s event.

The event was attended by the following teams and a few other interested persons,

• VYSWO (Village Youth Social Welfare Organization), Dharmapuri -http://vyswo.com/
• G-18, Coimbatore
• Social Welfare Organization, Ennur, Chennai
• Anavi -http://www.anavi.co.in/
• 5^th Pillar, Chennai -http://india.5thpillar.org/
• Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam, Chennai.
• Shanthi Ashram, Coimbatore -http://www.shantiashram.org/
• M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai – http://www.mssrf.org/
• Thesam
• Disha Foundation – http://disha-activist.livejournal.com/
• Global Society Makers, Chennai
• Helping Hands, Chennai.

During the Saturday morning session, each team was given 15 minutes to explain about the area of their work, their projects and vision. In the evening there was a visit to the Kuthambakkam village to see the beautiful things that are happening there.

In the evening we had a captivating speech by Elango Na, a speech which made everyone think about what they are doing and also helped all of us get more focus. Our member Santhakumari gives an account of the captivating speech in this blog post.

There was also a session called Request and Response, in which different teams presented their requests to other teams which had come to the event.

Overall it was a good learning experience exposing, everyone present to, a lot of new ideas, thoughts and avenues that need to be explored for improving the living standards of the society. The event also reiterated the fact that what Vidial is doing is a very small activity when compared with the social challenges faced by our society.

We would like to thank Shanti Ashram for providing us with this wonderful opportunity and Elango na for agreeing to have this event at Kuthambakkam.

We also give our heartfelt thanks to Parthi na (G-18) and Nandha na (Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam) both of whom guided and helped us throughout the event. We also thank all other persons / organizations who helped us in making this year’s edition of Thesathirku Thol Kodu a successful one.

As we came out of the event, our resolve to serve the society, which has given so much to us, become more strong and passionate. Hopefully we would do more, time will tell.

Morning Session on Saturday

Just a few interesting stats to savour. We have compiled some figures based on our complete success history till now. We thought we could probably call them something fancy like ‘Vidial Success Dials’ ….