With the words—This is to certify that she does not belong to any caste or religion—from the Tehsildar of Tirupattur in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu, MA Sneha, a 35-year-old lawyer from the same town possibly became the first woman in the country to acquire an official ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate.

Ever since the news came through earlier this week, her phone has been ringing non-stop. Her story set social media abuzz. “You have actuated a long-dormant desire among Indians. Let’s discard what never belonged to us. Let us cast away caste. From this point, a better tomorrow will be more accessible,” tweeted the legendary actor-turned-politician Kamal Hasan in praise of her decision.

“I was brought up to think this way. My parents did not mention any caste or religion in my birth and school certificates. They refer to me as an Indian and we were brought up with these values. My sister Jennifer, Mumtaz and I were given names from different religious denominations. We don’t belong to any religion or caste. I married Mr. Parthiba Raja, who is a revolutionary in his thoughts and beliefs, and we had a marriage devoid of any traditional religious ceremonies or any markers notifying caste,” says MA Sneha, in a conversation with The Better India.

The couple has named their three daughters in the same way Sneha and her sisters had been.

Following the footsteps of Sneha’s parents, the couple left the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns blank in the school application forms of their daughters.

“So, this is my lifestyle from the beginning. If this is how we live, then why shouldn’t we get a ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate in place of a community certificate,” Sneha tells TBI.

A community certificate certifies that a person belongs to a particular minority community like Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and other Backward Classes. Community certificate issued by the State Governments concerned is also known as caste certificate.

“It took me nine years to acquire this ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate. I was writing letters to the Tehsildar, requesting a no-community certificate in the beginning and they were rejected with barely a look. After multiple attempts, I applied by employing a procedure they use for a community certificate in 2017. They had to answer the letter as it was numbered. They initially said there was no precedent for it, besides raising points like, ‘what is the use of this certificate’ and ‘we cannot agree to give you one without any particular reason’,” informs Sneha.

The authorities told her that they could certify whether she belonged to a particular caste and religion, but not that she did not belong to any. They kept giving several reasons, but eventually, in the face of Sneha’s reasons and intentions, they relented.

Through the vetting process, Sneha convinced the authorities that she wasn’t going to use this certificate for any advantageous purposes, deny anyone else their rights or acquire any benefits from the government. “By this certificate, I wasn’t going to steal or take away any benefits from anyone else. It is my identity and an acknowledgment of my life,” she says.

This explanation convinced the Sub-Collector and Tehsildar of her intentions to get this certificate.

“She wanted to be certified as no caste and no religion. We had to check if her assertions were true. We verified all her school and college documents and found the two columns blank. So, though we found no precedent, we decided to go ahead and certify her as it will not affect anybody or take away another person’s opportunity,” said B. Priyanka Pankajam, Sub-Collector of Tirupattur, to The Hindu.

For Sneha, the rejection of religion and caste were values passed on from her parents. Though her father was brought up in a family of Marxists, her mother came from a traditional family. When Sneha’s mother was in school, she began reading the works of BR Ambedkar, Karl Marx, Periyar and a whole host of progressive thinkers. Her parents were classmates at Chennai Law College.

“They fell in love and got married. They dedicated their lives to fighting casteism, communalism and supporting the cause of the suppressed communities. That’s the reason why they named their daughters with the names we have and promoted progressive thinking at home,” tells Sneha.

In her pursuit of this certificate, she gives her husband K. Parthiba Raja, a Tamil professor, a lot of credit. “My husband was so encouraging and supportive. We have taken an oath to sacrifice our family’s wishes for social causes. He has always been my backbone,” she says.

Can any other citizen avail of this certificate?

“My records have always reflected no caste or religion. Those who have not had a caste or community mentioned in their certificates can follow the procedure I have. Those with a community certificate identifying them with a particular caste or religion must find a different way through the judicial system. Officials like the Sub Collector and Tehsildar don’t have the authority to revoke the certificates they have already given out. They must seek out the judicial system,” she explains.

Many have reached out to her seeking a way whereby they can also acquire a ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate. She is planning to discuss this with some advocates and file a writ on the same.

“Through the writ, I seek a judicial or government order which will hopefully lay out a procedure whereby people who are willing to get a ‘no caste, no religion’ certificate can acquire one. Not everyone can get this certificate. The authorities who I applied to used their discretionary powers. Not every Tehsildar and Sub Collector will encourage this sort of application,” she says.
Also Read: Freedom Fighter’s Small Change Transformed UN’s Declaration of Human Rights

Although elements like caste and religion create a sense of collective identity and community among some, they have often been used as a tool to divide people, resulting in violence, discrimination, and public unrest. Through her endeavours, Sneha is trying to forge a path for those who want to reject these tools of division.

But her fight isn’t done yet. There is still a lot to be done.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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The protagonist of my story was conditioned to believe three things about herself from a rather young age – Poor. Village. Girl.

This is a story of Ashweetha Shetty, who not just challenged that conditioning but has gone on to change her life around by 360 degrees.

In this exclusive conversation with The Better India, Ashweetha Shetty tells us how she overcame incredible odds to become a rural social worker, a Ted speaker, and the founder of the Bodhi Tree Foundation.

Early years

The third born to parents who rolled beedis in a small village called Mukkudal in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, life for Ashweetha was anything but easy.

“I grew up with the belief that men raising their voice and even hand at women are common things. I never saw it as being a violation or even being wrong,” she says.

Ashweetha’s parents, like a majority of others in her village, were very poor, and having one more mouth to feed was not something they took to very pleasantly.

“I also learnt very early on in life that no one had any expectations of me. Perhaps that motivated me to do something meaningful with my life,” she says with a chuckle.

The fear of being married off after the completion of her school education was always looming large. Recounting those days, she says, “My elder sister was married off at a very young age and I think I lived in perpetual fear of meeting the same fate. Everywhere I went, people only spoke about marriage and prospective grooms.”

Books as an escape route

“I read about Irom Sharmila’s struggle and was very inspired by her.”

At 13, she read the autobiography of Helen Keller and realised that she alone, and not anyone else, had the power to transform her life.

“The more I read, the more I realised that I was living a suffocating life. I truly felt the need to escape it all,” she says. Reading a lot of Bharatiyar and the women was a help too.”

She tells me how she started learning English. “Barkha Dutt was one lady who immensely inspired me. I used to enjoy watching the shows she anchored. In fact, I would tell my mother that if I rolled ‘x’ number of beedis in the day, she should allow me to watch a Barkha Dutt programme. I also started following English because of those programmes.”

Young India Fellowship

The Young India Fellowship is a one-year residential multi-disciplinary postgraduate programme which provides liberal arts education with a focus on experiential learning. Indians under the age of 29, with an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree in any subject, are eligible to apply for the fellowship.

Ashweetha shares, “When I sent in my application I was most certain of NOT clearing it.”

This, she elaborates, is because when she applied for the fellowship in 2012, she couldn’t speak English.

She continues, “When I gave my YIF interview, I had no idea I could speak in English. Until then, I had no opportunity to speak with anyone in the language, so I surprised myself when I did. Though it was rather garbled and messy, I was happy I could speak in the language,” she says

Life in Delhi

“My driving force was to ensure that I find my voice and a means to express myself in the class.”

All the classes were highly interactive and while she had many things to share, she often held back because of the language barrier. To overcome this, she worked ten times harder than the rest of her classmates.

Mother – a source of strength and support

She’s very grateful to her progressive mother who only wanted her to succeed. “I am what I am because of my mother,” she gushes.

Bodhi Tree Foundation

In May 2014, Ashweetha founded the Bodhi Tree Foundation. It is a non-profit organisation that aims to bridge the rural-urban divide by empowering rural graduates through soft-skill training, enabling them to take charge of their lives and contribute to the development of their communities through education, opportunities and entrepreneurship.

Bodhi Tree works primarily with first-generation rural graduates training them in English language, mentoring them in their careers and strengthening their life management skills.

Currently, the foundation reaches around 2,400 rural graduates through its programmes in Tirunelveli.

Ashweetha shares, “Communication is a key and I believe rural graduates can be trained and equipped to communicate with others effectively. Besides, we also work on developing their self-esteem, and empower them to make the right decisions.”

Because no one ever counselled her while growing up or even asked her what she wanted to do in life, she felt there was a void. Through Bodhi Tree, she hopes to fill that void for others.

She continues, “Perhaps if someone had taken the trouble to ask me about how I was, whether I was doing well mentally, what I intended to do in life, I might have had better clarity. A lot of my day-to-day reality impacted me immensely, also making me introverted. In starting the organisation, I wanted to help students overcome their economic, social, and cultural baggage.”

She concludes, “I wish that the birth of a child is celebrated, regardless of whether it is a girl or a boy. The celebrations must be for the new life that has come into the world. The day that happens, I will be happy.”

To read more about Bodhi Tree Foundation, click here or visit their Facebook page here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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38-year-old Maheshwari is a former daily wage labourer in the tea estates of Kottagiri, in the Nilgiri District. While tea plantations look inviting during a holiday, there is no vacation for labourers like her. They toil on the deceptively beautiful but treacherous terrain of the estates.

While the opportunities for labour are many, their wages are uncertain. For all the hard work she put in, Maheshwari earned just Rs 60 per day.

So after many years of this instability, when the opportunity for a steady income came her way, she was excited and weary. Maheshwari joined Last Forest Enterprise, a company that believes in shifting power to the producers. Since then, things have changed dramatically for her.

Today, she is on a regular payroll, earns a steady income between Rs 200-400 per day, and is able to support her son’s education

The collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), mainly silk cotton in a sustainable manner, is the credo of Last Forest.

The brainchild of Mathew John, Pratim Roy, and Snehlata Nath, Last Forest was incubated by the NGO, Keystone Foundation. It was primarily created as a marketing platform for the indigenous communities, and self-help groups.

Managing Director Mathew John says, “Last Forest started to support local and marginalised communities in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. We pioneered the concept of recognising different kinds of honey based on taste and bee species. We are working to empower and enrich communities and facilitate the connect with the market through sustainable practices.”

Buy Last Forest’s products on The Better India Shop here.

Kotagiri, which falls under the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna as well as different tribal groups like the Todas, Kotas, Irullas, Kurumbas.

Over the years, Last Forest has been providing training in sustainable harvesting and organic agriculture to the residents. Their mission is to preserve, conserve and nurture the environment.

The changes they bring to the ground are not revolutionary, but with the right touch and methods, they bring about a significant positive change. For example, after the honey was collected, the beeswax would be discarded as waste. With the help of the organisation, the wax is also utilised in an efficient manner, thereby increasing the earning potential of the communities.

Early years

Speaking to The Better India of the initial days Communication manager Madhu, says, “The immediate challenge when we started was to get access to these communities. Most of them lived in very remote areas and our goal was to provide them with medical support and basic amenities like water. These were lacking severely.”

The process required them to make efforts to build local trust. Madhu recounts that once they were able to do this, the communities were far more receptive to them and their ideas.

“Even now, the power of running the producer company is completely vested with the communities. We have to acknowledge the fact that we are in their space and must respect that,” he says.

Madhu explains, “Initially, just to give the products a boost, Keystone Foundation was buying the products. Then, in 2010, when we found that there was a market for it all, Last Forest came into the picture.”

Honey was one of the first products that helped them create a large-scale impact. It had a ready market in the urban areas and was also the source of livelihood for a number of tribal honey collectors. Their experience set the snowball rolling for Last Forest.

How is the honey collected?

Madhu answers, “The tribal communities we work with have their own traditional methods of collecting honey. One way is by using smoke. The bee collectors basically hang from rocks. (Many beehives are made under cliff hangs in the wild. The collectors are lowered over the edge to collect the honey). While this method shocks the bees for a while, the hive remains intact, and no damage is done to it while the honey is collected.”

This method allows the bees to return to the hive almost immediately after the honey is collected.

“The other way is by carefully removing the middle portion of the hive. In this method too, no harm is caused to the colonies inside the hive. It also similarly allows for the bees to go back to the hive,” says Madhu.

The emphasis in procuring honey is to ensure that no harm is caused to the hive or the bees. These processes require precision and tact.

Products

From selling the honey, Last Forest has now developed a range of products like balms, lip balms, and soaps. These products use beeswax which was previously discarded.

They have also started manufacturing beeswax wraps as a natural alternative to plastic wrap for storing food.

Slowly diversifying from honey, the tribal community also sources and plucks local spices and coffee. “The Toda community also makes some pretty handiwork (embroidery) on shawls and stoles. Some of them even make kurtas and shirts that we retail,” says Madhu.

The Impact

It is interesting how Last Forest has impacted the lives of the local community members. Kamala, who has been one of the longest-serving women at the producer company, joined the centre as an NTFP collector. While she is 68 today, and not actively involved in the day-to-day workings, her expertise is much sought after.

She has developed skills and also brought others like her to work with the producer group. She has also got her husband involved in the procurement of honey and beeswax!

How does this work?

A producer company called Adhimalai is part of the NGO. Its 1,600 shareholders are from the tribal communities, as are the Directors. They set the cost of the products and control how they are sold.

Madhu shares, “This process ensures that the producer company and its members, the tribal communities, have complete control on the products.”

The biggest takeaway from working with the organisation has been the assurance of a steady source of income for the community members. “From having to toil as daily wage labourers with no steady income, to being able to support their families; the growth curve for the community has been great,” says Madhu.

Buy Last Forest’s products on The Better India Shop here.

This is creating a tangible, long-lasting impact for marginalised communities, and we wish more success to Madhu and his team.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Writing about women achievers who broke the glass ceiling would not be possible without the mention of S Meenakshi Ammal. This gritty lady wrote and published her first cookbook – Samaithu Paar (Cook and See) in 1951! This was even before the term ‘glass ceiling‘ was coined.

Published almost seventy years ago, the book is a repository of traditional recipes cooked in a typical Brahmin household. Meenakshi Ammal wrote this book at a time when a cookbook was unheard of and Indian women did not write much.

Married at 19 and widowed at 23, her life was as tough as it could get.

A two-year-old son, a mother-in-law, and a seven-year-old brother-in-law, Meenakshi Ammal embraced all her responsibilities without getting overwhelmed by them.

She had her one key strength – her amazing cooking skills – and the confidence to back them. Bit by bit, she built her life through sheer hard work.

The Better India caught up with Priya Ramkumar, the grand-daughter-in-law of Meenakshi Ammal, to understand the authoress’ life and the genesis of her book.

Since 1994, Priya has been running the publication along with her father-in-law, who managed it until then.

Priya begins, “I started slowly, and once I had learnt the ropes, my father-in-law entrusted me with the running of the publication and the blog.”

Recalling the time when Meenakshi Ammal made her foray into the publishing world, Priya says, “My grandmother-in-law was known for her ability to cook for very large gatherings. She could cook for more than 50 people at a time! In those days, there was no option of outside catering, or eating out, so everything had to be self-made.”

Gatherings in those days were also very large since the immediate family itself would consist of more than 20 people.

Relatives would often call Meenakshi Ammal for help with cooking during festivals or other family gatherings. It was her uncle, K V Krishnaswami Iyer, a well-known lawyer in Chennai, who encouraged her to write the recipes and publish a book for the family members.

“It was meant for circulation within the family. It was a very practical suggestion to help pass on these recipes from one generation to another and also help all those who sought Meenakshi Ammal’s help from time to time. In the course of writing the book, it became larger than what it was intended to be,” says Priya.

Meenakshi Ammal even had to pledge her jewellery to publish the first book!

“In those days, it was uncommon for a widow to do all that Meenakshi Ammal was doing. There were many detractors along the way, but what kept her going was perhaps her passion for food and the unflinching support she got from her uncle. He believed that there was a market for her books.”

The first book was not an instant hit. In those days, there was no marketing and social media. “It was just word-of-mouth that ensured sales. The mass migration of people from Madras (now Chennai) to various parts of India and outside, helped the sales of the book as well,” recounts Priya.

Sharing a sweet memory, Priya says, “During those days, there was no telephone facility either. Young brides used to book trunk calls to speak to Meenakshi Ammal for help in cooking. So in a sense, the book she published came as a boon to many people.”

This one rang home for me, for I had received the book as a gift, as a newly-wed setting up a new life. It taught me that rasam no longer meant just two or three varieties, there were many different kinds.

Meenakshi Ammal passed away at 56 in 1962, so Priya never got to meet her, but everything she knows about the legend is from her father-in-law, who held his mother in high regard.

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While she saw the success of the book for ten years after it was published, Meenakshi Ammal would have never imagined the extent of its success–how it made her a household name across generations.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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For seven doctors from Madurai, “social service” isn’t merely a catchphrase. It’s a way of life. These are doctors with a conscience. While four of them are school batchmates, the other three moved in the same circles while working in different corporate hospitals in the city. These are men and women who have their professional aspirations and families to support, but seeing patients being turned away by their respective hospitals for lack of funds gave them sleepless nights.

Unable to shake off the feeling of helplessness and pain at the plight of underprivileged patients waiting for treatments, these seven doctors came together in August 2014 to set up Aishwaryam Trust aimed at giving free treatment to those who cannot afford basic quality healthcare.

Speaking to The Better India (TBI), Dr. R Balagurusamy, Chairman and Managing Trustee of Aishwaryam Trust says, “For the first year, we conducted medical camps and health awareness drives in remote villages around Madurai and offered medical support to orphanages.”

Despite serving the poor and underserved during the spare time from their regular jobs, they were not seeing the requisite impact on the ground.

“I went for an awareness camp at Alagar Kovil near Madurai and saw a 47-year-old bedridden patient. He had advanced stage cancer and was poor. Unfortunately, there were no decent medical facilities available in the area. His family was looking after him at home. That incident left an indelible impression on me. We thought that offering our services to such people would really be useful. So, we discussed it as a team, and decided to start a care centre only for abandoned patients,” he says.

Initially, the Trust set up a care facility in a rented building in the city and paid for it by pooling their respective salaries.

“However, merely six months after we opened this facility, the owner of the building began issuing complaints about the odour emanating from the wards, and that the value of the land would fall due to the sick people housed there. They told us to pack up within six months. If we don’t have land, what would happen to us? What would happen to our patients?” were just some of the questions, among many, says Dr. S Sabari Manikandan MD.

Moreover, Dr. Manikandan goes onto say that many hospitals neither understand nor show any awareness about delivering palliative care to terminally ill patients.

“Some hospitals want to discharge them because of fears that they would affect their mortality rate, despite the patient’s wish to stay. Many patients say, ‘if you send me home, I wouldn’t be able to bear this pain and suffering, and will need assistance.’ Hospital management, however, doesn’t want to keep them. Therefore, we also wanted to set up a palliative care centre,” he adds.

Fortunately, for these doctors-cum-social workers, there was help on the horizon in the form of R Jalaja, a 67-year-old retiree who had earlier worked at the Customs & Central Excise Department, and her husband K Janardhanan, 74, ex-AGM Telecom in BSNL.

Jalaja accompanied her husband, Janardhanan to Arvind Eye Hospital for a regular check-up. He suffers from ICE Syndrome and has very low vision in just one eye. While waiting for her husband’s turn, Jalaja picked up a newspaper and read a story about the doctors who wanted to set up a permanent healthcare centre but did not have the necessary means.

Wanting to contribute towards the noble initiative of these young doctors, the retired couple got in touch with the Aishwaryam Trust team. Deeply impressed by the team’s ethics and dedication while treating nearly a dozen senior citizens at the rented facility, they decided to donate 27 cents (1,092 square feet) of land to the Trust.

Using the money from his Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), Janardhanan had purchased a piece of land back in 2000, in Joseph Nagar near Vilachery, Madurai, for his wife who wanted to construct a nursing home. In the meanwhile, the couple had been running a nursing home at their residence.

In fact, according to this report in The Hindu, the couple saves a combined amount of Rs 45,000 from their monthly pension money and give it to those who need it the most. The doctors were indeed very lucky to find this philanthropic old couple.

“We don’t have a child of our own. The young doctors are our children now, and the hospice is our new baby that we want to see grow fast,” said Jalaja, speaking to the Chennai-based publication.

“We didn’t even have enough money for the registration deed. The couple took care of that. Without them, we don’t know what we would have done,” says Dr. Manikandan.

However, the next major challenge was constructing the hospice. Fortunately, many in the city stepped up to the plate in donating money and materials. “We had a lot of donations coming in. Establishments like Arvind Eye Care Hospital, TVS Group, other local businesses, the old couple’s relatives, our own pockets, and individual well-wishers,” informs Dr. Balagurusamy.

In January 2016, the Aishwaryam Trust opened the Nethravathi Pain, Palliative Care, and Rehabilitation Centre. It was named after the Trust’s Financial Trustee and Treasurer, Dr. R Amudhanilavan’s mother Nethravathi, a gynaecologist who had dedicated her life to serving young mothers in need. She passed away at the age of 54 from breast cancer. Having witnessed his mother in pain, Dr. Amudhanilavan was determined to offer palliative care to patients who are in the last stages of their lives.

Nethravathi care facility today has 50 beds and is currently serving 42 patients without any charges. The patients include those with advanced stage cancer, stroke, and fractures, besides bedridden old age people abandoned by their families. “We have all worked in private hospitals, but palliative care patients usually need extensive support that they cannot always provide. That support is for them to live out their days in dignity. For the last stage cancer patients, those with breathing difficulties or in severe pain, we want to help them live out their final days in comfort,” says Dr. Manikandan.

The care facility has not only given terminally-ill patients comfort, but also given treatment and shelter to senior citizens abandoned by their family, and on occasions even reunited some patients with their families, like in the case of Chelamma.

Three months ago, Nagaraj, a local Madurai resident, was scrambling around the city looking for his mother Chelamma who had stepped out of the house and had not been able to find her way back.

“I was in a state of total panic. For ten days we kept looking around for her. With children living with mental disabilities at home and not enough money, there was very little we could do. We even reached out to the police. Fortunately, someone spotted her near a water body adjacent to a temple, took pictures and sent them to the people at Aishwaryam Trust, who eventually found her. When they found my mother, she was covered in dirt and was in a poor state of health,” Nagaraj tells TBI.

“The Trust offered to take care of my mother and reunited us. She received good treatment at the hospital, and we truly appreciate what they have done for her,” he adds.

It’s been little over a month since Chelamma came back home.

Parveena Begum from Dindigul narrates another example of the care facility’s fine work. Parveena’s paternal aunt, Alima Beevi suffered a severe bone fracture six months ago after she fell down the stairs.

“Even though she needed surgery, doctors couldn’t operate because of her old age. Moreover, the family, with many mouths to feed, could not afford to pay for Alima’s physiotherapy. Seeing her lying helpless on her bed in pain was hard to witness. Thankfully, a family friend recommended that we should admit Alima to the care facility in Madurai. We soon admitted her there,” says Parveena.

She goes onto praise the physiotherapy work doctors at the facility did for Alima. Little surprise, the recovery process went very well, and today she is on the path towards walking again.

“Everything was taken care of nicely. They are very responsible and do not ask for any funds even though the facility has outstanding doctors and nurses,” she adds.

Dr. Manikandan remembers another patient Indrani, who was abandoned by her family. As she had complete paralysis in the left arm and leg, her family decided it wasn’t worth their time to treat her.

“She was initially depressed, but we constantly engaged with her and gave her regular physiotherapy. After the months-long recovery period, she has gotten a lot better. Today, she is friendly, interacts with others at the facility and can walk with a walker thanks to regular physio and medication. We tried to track her family, but could not find them. And, Indrani has no interest in reuniting with them,” informs Dr. Manikandan.

Like Indrani, the care facility has several mental health patients, also abandoned by their families. The police bring such patients to the facility, and at times, the team even rescues terminally-ill cancer patients, and with permission from their families, conduct their final rites as well.

What’s remarkable about the doctors is that this isn’t even their regular job. They work in different corporate hospitals, but every day, they spend some hours at the hospital in different shifts.

For Dr. Balagurusamy, it’s between 10 am and 2 pm, while Dr. Manikandan picks up the 2 pm to 6 pm shift. Besides, the facility has ten nurses and one full-time physiotherapist. The facility also provides food, washing and cleaning facilities.

While good samaritans in the city have played a critical role by regularly donating food, medicines, clothes, cots, and grocery items, the challenge arises in paying the salaries of the nurses and the physiotherapist. However, this hasn’t stopped the Trust from wanting to expand their operations.

“We have made plans to expand our Palliative Centre to 100 beds. We are planning to extend the building. Another project is a Neuro Rehab Centre. This will be a service-oriented facility for children living with mental disabilities and with cerebral palsy,” says Dr. Balagurusamy.

Also Read: Are You a Stem Cell Donor? This Cancer Warrior’s Story Will Inspire All to Register

For Dr. Manikandan, the work they do is for personal satisfaction. “Seeing patients happy gives us happiness. Their words of encouragement like ‘you saved my life’ gives us a lot of inspiration. We are simple people who don’t care for material needs, and doing this work is what gives us joy,” he says.

(Aishwaryam Trust Team: Dr R Balagurusamy, Chairman and Managing Trustee; Dr R Amudhanilavan, Financial Trustee and Treasurer; Dr S Sabari Manikandan, Trustee and In-Charge of Geriatric Welfare; Dr Srividya Manjunath, Trustee and In-Charge Women and Children Welfare; Dr C Satheesh, Trustee and In-Charge of Infection and Quality Control Division; Dr G Praburam Niranjan, Trustee and In-Charge of Pain Management and General Palliative Care Division; and Dr P Venkatesh, Trustee and In-Charge of Palliation in Neurological Diseases and Neuro Rehabilitation Division.)

If you want to help these doctors, you can reach them here.

(With inputs from Ahmed Sherrif)

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Masilamani’s daughter, a 6-year-old, suffers from Thalassemia Major, a serious blood disorder which requires the patient to undergo frequent blood transfusions.

She has been looking for a suitable donor for her child, for quite some time now. Unfortunately, these efforts have mostly been unsuccessful.

However, when the 26-year-old mother found out that she was a perfect match for a four-month-old infant afflicted with a critical autoimmune disease, she didn’t think twice before agreeing to the bone marrow donation.

“I wanted to be a donor for my daughter, but the results at the DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry stated I wasn’t a match. However, I was matched with a baby boy, which made me very happy as I could save a child’s life. I pray to the almighty that he recovers soon,” said Masilamani, who hails from a remote village named Mudhalipalayam near Coimbatore.

As per reports, thanks to this act, Masilamani has become India’s first woman bone marrow donor. Speaking to the press, Raghu Rajagopal, the Co-founder, and CEO of DATRI stated:

“I feel privileged to have India’s first lady Bone Marrow Donor from DATRI. It makes me proud to say that while women are excelling in every field, there are a few who are doing extraordinary and phenomenal contributions to the human kind such as donating their blood stem cells to save lives. In the true sense it is like giving birth, but not biologically.”

It wasn’t easy though. Masilamani faced severe resistance from her fellow villagers and her immediate family.

My in-laws were worried because of my daughter’s chronic illness. Even my relatives and neighbours advised me not to go ahead with the donation as there could be side effects in the future, if not immediately.

She fought tooth and nail and finally convinced her family with help from her husband.

“When I shared this with my husband he was on board immediately. I must thank him for supporting me and being by my side always. Some men would leave their partners if the child is found to be having a fatal disorder. But he has been a responsible father and a great partner,” she added.

Masilamani did have her doubts, which were resolved by Dr Revathi Raj, the surgeon who operated on her.

Speaking to The Better India, Dr Raj said, “Bone marrow is harvested under general anesthesia, in which a needle is inserted into the pelvic bone and the marrow is extracted with a syringe. Masilamani is probably the first (woman) unrelated donor to donate her bone marrow and this was a phenomenal step. I appreciate her husband’s support and DATRI’s successful facilitation. She gave life to her children once and now, she has given life to another child.”

The surgery took place in January this year, and went off smoothly.

“The operation was completed within an hour. I had a slight pain in the hip after the marrow was taken, but the next day I was all fine and back to normal,” said Masilamani.

After setting an example for everyone, especially women, Masilamani is now an active propagator of organ donation. She believes that there is no better noble act than giving a new lease of life to someone.

If any woman wants to be a bone marrow donor, I appeal to them to stay firm about their decision. They say the greatest gift is the gift of life and it is a golden opportunity if you are a perfect match. If given another chance, I will donate again, she signs off.

Also Read: Organ Donations Save Lives! And Here’s Why India’s Rates Are Soaring

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

At first sight, Tirunagar-based R Jalaja and K Janardhanan will pass off as any other retired couple, making plans to invest their time and savings in travelling or with family.

Well, they did find a greater purpose post-retirement, one that was not centred upon themselves but society.

In one of our previous stories about seven doctors from Madurai who treat the poor and abandoned for free, this is the couple who had donated a plot of land purchased with their life’s savings to these doctors for setting up a permanent healthcare centre.

This is their story.

Jalaja and Janardhanan nursed a mutual passion for social service, but it wasn’t until the early nineties that they would actually get down to work.

Pained by the state of poor and homeless people, they were driven by an overwhelming sense to care for those who had no one.

It was the plight of the elderly that particularly affected the duo; ten beggars in search of food would knock their doors almost every day. They wanted to open an old age home for them. They realised that they had the financial viability of not just accommodating 10-15 persons in their own home but also feed and care for them.

“But because we were both working at the time, our commitment towards the cause would be hard-pressed. So we contemplated over one of us taking voluntary retirement. As Jalaja had reached the eligibility for the same, she decided to take the call. That’s how it started. We decided to keep aside 25 per cent of our salaries and use our own home,” says a very jovial Janardhanan to The Better India.

So after completing 20 years of service in the Customs & Central Excise Department, she applied for voluntary retirement in 1994 to realise their dream of serving the elderly, while Janardhanan continued serving as Assistant Director Telecom in BSNL until retirement.

Moving to the first floor of their two-storey house, the couple decided to operate their old age home from the ground floor, keeping in mind the ease and convenience of the potential inmates. With an area of 600 sq ft, they figured they could easily accommodate 8-10 persons, with 4-5 cots in the hall as well as bedroom. It greatly helped that they had two bathrooms—one in the master bedroom and one outside.

With the accommodation and sanitation addressed, the most important part remained—the food. The couple led a very simple life with Jalaja preparing the daily meals for them both.

“So, initially she would prepare the food for the inmates. As time passed and the health of the inmates improved, they began to help her out with the kitchen chores. Since we were sure of the people in the house and their consumption, we knew the exact amount of time it would take to cook—the kitchen wasn’t occupied 24×7,” he explains.

Interestingly, when they opened the doors of their old age home, Jalaja and Janardhanan could only bring home two individuals. It would take another two years for their home to reach its full capacity—thanks to word of mouth.

“Since there were very few facilities in our area, the word spread quite quickly. We didn’t have to go in search of the people, they found us,” he says.

But all of these investments were made before they admitted anybody.

“We were very particular about that and managed our finances accordingly. If we were to accommodate ten people, everything had to be in place beforehand. It shouldn’t be the case where people are in the house without cots or other provisions. Every single person was provided with his or her own cot, mattress and side racks, along with an almirah with individual lockers where they could keep their stuff,” Janardhanan adds.

For the next four years, their home became a dignified haven for many homeless and deprived elders in the town, for whom the couple became not just caregivers, but children.

In 1998, luck came knocking on their door when the house adjacent to their home became vacant and up for sale. With plans to extend their service further, they bought this single-floor residence by explaining their purpose to the owners. Using funds from their EPF as well as savings, they bought the house at Rs 3.5 lakh. With this move, they could accommodate even more people.

“By 2000, we had 16 inmates under our care—with both houses having eight inmates each. However, we had only one kitchen running for both the homes. Being adjacent to each other, we faced no difficulty with managing that. We would provide them with rice, sambar or rasam, two types of vegetable curries and buttermilk. By then, we had employed a cook. On occasions when the cook was unavailable, we would cook because we couldn’t keep our inmates waiting,” he says.

With so many people at their home, it often became hard for Jalaja to manage, because Janardhanan’s work hours were quite erratic. Because of their undying passion, he decided that he too would step down and shoulder the reins of the homes alongside his wife. In 2000, he retired, five years before he intended to.

Around this time, they purchased a plot comprising 27 cents (where 100 cents make one acre) in Joseph Nagar near Vilachery. They wanted to construct a bigger old age home. This would become the plot that they would later donate to the Aishwaryam Trust in 2016.

The fact that Jalaja and Janardhanan sought no help or assistance in their pursuit of serving the poor and needy is remarkable. From food to household items, they managed everything through their income and savings. Despite receiving enough pension to live luxuriously, they led a very frugal life to be able to serve the needy.

However, as the years passed by, they could no longer ignore their health concerns.

In 2002, when Janardhanan contracted the Irido-Corneal Endothelial, or ICE syndrome, one of his eyes lost vision entirely while the other ended up with partially impaired vision.

“This made it hard for us to manage the home, but we didn’t want to abruptly end what we had started so sincerely—many lives were at stake. For them, it would be like losing the roof above their heads one fine day. So, gradually, we helped relocate most of our inhabitants to other homes. It was hard, but we had no other way—it was better than becoming homeless and uncared for all over again,” he recalls.

In 2016, they came across Aishwaryam Trust and the group of young doctors who were treating the poor and downtrodden. In the newspaper article, they read how the group wanted to set up a permanent hospice but lacked the resources to do so.

“It reminded us of the work we did through our old age home, but this was even more difficult. Their commitment to service for the poor and that too, at such a young age, really touched us and caught our attention,” Janardhanan says.

Upon meeting the doctors, they decided to donate their 27-cent plot in Vilachery. “We never wanted to sell that land or encash it, even though the real estate value would bring great returns. Even before we came across the Trust, we wanted to donate it for a greater cause, especially after we realised it wouldn’t be feasible for us to build an old age home on our own,” Janardhanan mentions.

By this time, they had lit up the lives of over 150 elders—of whom—some got to reunite with their family members, while a few passed away at the home.

One of the doctors from Aishwaryam Trust, Dr Manikandan, shares how they did not have enough money for the registration deed. “The couple took care of that. Without them, we don’t know what we would have done,” he said, in an interview with TBI earlier.

As for raising funds for the construction of the hospice, many people in the city came forward and helped the Trust. Even here, Janardhanan and Jalaja donated a generous amount, while also encouraging their relatives and friends to follow suit. Janardhanan also guided the doctors in the design and planning of the hospice.

In March 2017, the couple completed the registration formalities and flagged off the construction in June. By the end of the year, the first floor of Nethravathi Pain, Palliative Care, and Rehabilitation Centre was commissioned. Shortly afterwards, even the second floor began functioning.

The couple were the rightful guests of honour at the inauguration.

Nethravathi Care today has 50 beds and serves 42 patients without any charges. The patients include those with advanced cancer, stroke, and fractures, besides bedridden old people who have been abandoned by their families.

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Besides caring for the elderly with dignity in their twilight years and giving away their most valued investment for a hospice, Janardhanan and Jalaja’s passion for social service is truly admirable. At 73 and 66, they are true unsung heroes of our society who shine as symbols of compassion and charity. Their incredible story inspires us, and we hope their tribe grows.

(With inputs from Ahmed Sherrif)

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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A few minutes to noon, and an impatient restlessness fills the air. Just as the clock strikes, the bell rings; and boundaries of anticipation and discipline break open. The students flood out into the dining hall all in pursuit of their delicious lunch.

This is a daily scenario at the 133-year-old Sourashtra Boys Higher Secondary School in Madurai. Wrapped in the delicate pages of its glorious past, the school inspired the present-day Midday Meal Scheme.

Initially established to provide education to saurashtrians of South India who migrated from the Lata region of Gujarat, the main objective of the school has always leaned toward social good.

“The community is a linguistic minority largely comprised of poor handloom weavers. Education was never an option for them, as children after the age of seven or so go to work with their parents. For them, this was the only way of earning a living. We wanted to change that perspective, and so the school was opened,” said M N Sankaran, President of Sourashtra High School Council.

The school administration started the midday meal programme as an incentive for the parents to send their children to school.

Hence, in 1911, several trustees and philanthropists started one of the oldest noon-meal schemes employed in a school in India, claims M N Sankaran.

“Back in 1954, during our golden jubilee celebrations, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Kamaraj had visited the school. The noon-meal programme highly impressed him. He soon sent Dr N D Sundaravadivelu, Director of Public Instruction to review the service in our school,” informs Sankaran.

Sundaravadivelu, after the review, went on to recommend this practice to the government. The State government then implemented the scheme across the State.

“Soon its success story reached the Centre, and now the entire nation follows the scheme. And so Sundaravadivelu is known as the architect of the scheme for school children,” adds Sankaran.
Although the menu changes daily, a few items like rice, sambar, rasam, pickle and buttermilk, are always constant. He added that they make sure to serve nutrient-rich food as well as tasty treats like payasam or kesari on special occasions. The school has been serving a healthy and delicious three-course meal for almost a century to millions of students, and that too for free.

The school gets all its funds from trustee members, private donors and alumni.

“When we began we had almost 2,000 students eating every day. Now with more schools in the area with the same scheme, we now serve 1,200 students a day. But on the other hand, the expenses have increased as well. Initially, we had created a corpus fund to allow it to function seamlessly, and as per calculations, it cost 25 paise per day per student. Since then it has grown from 50 paise to Rs 15 per student per day now. But with a steady flow of donors and alumni contribution from across the world, we have never had to break with this tradition ever!” Sankaran said proudly.

With the noble cause at the forefront, the school expanded the scheme to include a free breakfast meal programme.

“As the school grew, many of our students began to come from far off places in the neighbouring outskirts. Some would travel over 15 km to reach the school, and in such cases, they would often have to miss breakfast to reach on time. Our school begins from 8 o’clock and continues till 5 pm, and expecting the kids to be hungry till noon and sustain till the evening only on noon-meal was unreasonable. So we stretched the programme further and began serving breakfast from 2003,” he informed.

With the help of more than 100 voluntary donors, the school now serves a variety of items along with idli, pongal or puri for breakfast.

Also Read: From 0 to 56 Students: How One Man’s Vision Transformed a Maharashtra Village

“Our main objective was to provide education and nutrition to children who could not afford even a single meal a day, and we are proud to say that we were able to continue that for this long. In return, we got a stellar legacy of students, unimaginable amount of love and respect. What more can a man ask for, in his lifetime?” exclaims the 81-year-old happily.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Mahalaxmi sits with three other women sorting though the cocoa beans spread before them. Their brows are furrowed in concentration. A bean is chucked into the bin; too small. The other meets the same fate; too flat, a few others—broken. All these imperfect beans are eliminated from the small heap till the women are left with the richest sample at hand.

This sample of 300-odd cocoa beans will determine whether the gunny bags they fill adhere to the quality standards set by Mason & Co—a vegan, organic chocolate company in Tamil Nadu.

Started in 2014, Mason & Co is a tad different from most chocolatiers in India. Apart from the guarantee of their product being organic and vegan, the company sources all the raw materials from local farmers and empowers local women through employment.

For the love of chocolate:

Fabien Bontems came to India from France about 22 years ago with his mother. Though Fabien’s mother was on a quest for spiritual well-being, he found a home in the State of Tamil Nadu. Here, he trained to become a sound engineer, but five years ago, his career took a new turn when Jane Mason visited India.

Jane Mason is a lawyer and raw food chef from Australia who passionately practices Yoga. This love for yoga decided her visit to India—Auroville, specifically, to pursue her passion further. Of the many cultural differences that she acquainted herself with here, she realised that she had to give up on her love for chocolate. Jane is a vegan and most chocolate products in India had dairy.

“I also found that the preservatives used marred the original taste of the chocolate; and if you’re used to good artisanal chocolate, you can’t eat anything else,” she told The Hindu.

Being a raw food chef, she started experimenting with cacao and made her own chocolate. When her friends tasted her fine home-made chocolate, they encouraged her to go commercial. That’s when Jane partnered with Fabien and started working around with the available raw materials, and flavours to finally establish their unique brand, Mason & Co.

“It took us about two years with the experimentation. We had to be very careful with the flavours and the texture. Jane and I met in India itself and knew each other before we started the company. Her knowledge of the culinary arts and my technical knowledge came together in this enterprise,” Fabien tells The Better India.

One thing was clear for the duo. The enterprise had to be directed at empowering the locals and ensure that everything—from the raw materials to the end product—benefitted Indians.

Local strength whipped into decadent chocolate:

One of the very first aims of Mason & Co was to tie up with farmers who would guarantee organic cocoa beans to chocolate connoisseurs. “They’re used to cultivating for the mass production market, where it’s quantity over quality. A lot of farmers refused to work with us as they felt it was too much work to grow the beans organically with the focus being on the quality of each bean. Currently, we work with farmers; visiting their farms often and teaching them methods, telling them what we didn’t like about the taste of a certain batch and what they could do to fix it,” Jane tells The Hindu.

TBI also got in touch with Mansi Reddy who handles the marketing and partnerships of the company. Mansi told us that currently, they work with five farmers in the States of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, who grow organic, chemical-free cocoa beans on a commercial level.

You can buy chocolate products by Mason & Co at The Better India Shop, here.

“”We source our beans directly from farmers, removing the need for a middle man. We consult with them in their harvest, processing, and fermentation to create better quality beans. We have no exclusivity with our farmers and they are free to sell their beans to anyone at a fair price,” she tells TBI.

A fair price is fixed between the farmers and the company with one vital clause—no compromise on the quality or authenticity of the produce. Only then will the yield be considered as sold. Each of the farmers that they have partnered with has an Organic-produce Certificate guaranteeing that what you get in your packet is 100 per cent chemical-free.

Bean to bar:

“One feature about Mason & Co that I find remarkable is that we employ only local women in the organisation on every level; from segregation of the sample beans to making the end product. We do not rely entirely on machinery and many of our processes are done by hand. We have 14 women in the organisation and although we don’t like to bank on it, the entire company is women-run except for Fabien!” Mansi says.

Every part of the chocolate-making process is overseen on a very personal level to ensure the customer gets exactly what they are paying for. All processes like the carefully-selected farmers as honest and reliable sources of organic cocoa beans, the work of the local women who make the chocolate bars, drinking chocolate and cacao nibs, are monitored carefully.

You can buy chocolate products by Mason & Co at The Better India Shop, here.

“You will also notice that we don’t use any preservatives, which is basically the ideology of Mason & Co. In fact, we use minimal ingredients. Organic cacao and organic sugar are the only primary ingredients and of course, the flavours of the specific product. The organic, vegan principles have limited our flavour variety but it is worth it,” Mansi says.

“Another interesting aspect of Mason & Co is their ‘single origin’ method. This means that every cacao bean in a bar of chocolate comes from the same region and even the same farm, which is called ‘Single Estate.’ Cacao beans grown in one region or farm will have ‘terroir’ which means that they will develop flavours specific to the climate, farming, and processing. By using single origin beans we ensure purity in flavour dedicated to a specific region,” says their website.

A unique initiative that fills the niche for vegan, purely organic chocolate products in India, ‘Mason & Co has already found a market in over 100 stores in India. But you need not search for them elsewhere. You can purchase their products at The Better India Shop. Follow the link here.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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I still remember the important lines marked and highlighted with different coloured inks in my school textbooks.

That was an era when an elder sibling, cousin or neighbour would pass down their textbooks along with other school materials like bags and uniforms to the younger ones. We would cover them with old newspapers and stitch unused papers from notebooks to make new ones.

Way before the concept of ‘Reuse’ was integrated with waste management, it did rounds in several Indian homes, including mine. I can’t really recollect at what point these practices faded away.

Reviving some of these customs, here are some initiatives that the Tamil Nadu government has launched:

Book Banks

To encourage the reusing of old books the Tamil Nadu school department will soon kickstart ‘Book Banks’ in all its schools. According to The Times of India, this programme will also extend to all government affiliated schools in the state.

The idea behind the initiative is clear—to save lakhs of trees that are cut every year to make papers from them. The move comes in after the National Green Tribunal had recommended School Management Committees in all states to utilise used books in an effective manner.

The Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TTESC) is likely to start a book collection drive with the students passing in this academic year. The collected books will then be distributed to the new batches next year. However, it is optional for them to choose the used books, which will be distributed for free.

The schools have started collecting old books from the students who had written exams this year. If the books are in a good condition and if the students opt for them, then these books would be distributed to them, an official from the state education department told The Times of India.

More than 40,000 metric tonnes of paper is acquired by the TTESC every year to produce over eight crore textbooks for students studying between grades 1 and 12. In terms of impact, approximately eight lakh trees are cut down every year to make pulp for the papers used for the textbooks.

Welcoming this move, former Director of School Education, R Elangovan, said, “Creating this kind of environmental awareness among students is a good move. If we explain benefits to them, I am sure many students would opt for old books, which would save lakhs of trees and help in conservation efforts.”

Using Sugarcane Waste To Make Paper

Last year, the state education department printed more than 5.6 crore free textbooks and 3.1 crore chargeable copies.

For the next academic year, the TTESC is planning to purchase 49,500 metric tonnes of paper from the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Limited (TNPL). The printing company is known for using eucalyptus, casuarina plants and sugarcane waste to produce paper. This non-surface sized paper offers good strength, shine and brightness.

Besides, the textbook corporation had also collected discarded books from students and given them to the TNPL to recycle. A total of 2,119 metric tonnes of outdated books were collected from 2015-16 and 2017-18.

Recycling Paper Waste

Usually found with street and vegetable vendors, torn pages from discarded school books are used to serve food. This is an unfortunate state, considering that a child only uses the textbook—the treasure trove of knowledge—for a year before being given to the scrap dealer. Instead, this textbook can be recycled or reused in multiple ways.

For example, 900 children in Chennai are to undergo a waste management programme by Agal Foundation. The city-based NGO has provided ‘recycle’ bins in several schools, where children can deposit paper waste, reported NDTV. The idea is to educate them that while it is difficult to stop tree cutting, it is possible to reduce the number of trees cut by recycling used paper.

The Chennai High School in Kotturpuram and Mirra, a school for remedial learning, also follows the same practice of recycling waste. Namma Ooru NGO trains students in several schools of Chennai to segregate waste, reported The Times of India.

Going one step ahead, some schools also give their students the opportunity to earn money by donating waste paper. Around 30 schools collect paper, plastics and other waste materials from students and give them money in return. This is ITC’s Wealth Out of Waste (WOW) initiative. The ITC Mill in Coimbatore collects paper from these schools and converts it into pulp, reported The Hindu.

Also Read: 7 Unique Summer Courses in India For High School Students

These projects will not only reduce the strain on natural resources but will also help in reducing the overall cost of producing paper and new textbooks. Besides, they will be life lessons for children and adults across the country to smartly use existing resources without tapping into new ones.

Featured image source.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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A faint yellow bulb lights up a corner of Prathima’s kitchen. Sitting cross-legged near the stove, the mother of two roasts the last chapati she has rolled out. Today, her children will have to eat just half of their usual meal.

It isn’t a pleasant thought for a mother who along with her husband, had spent several months toiling in a plot of land, sowing seeds, spraying pesticides, and praying, that the rains showed mercy on her small Tamil Nadu village.

Last year was quite difficult for Prathima’s family, and now, they are up to their necks in debt. But what else can a farmer’s family do but strive through it all?

This is not just Prathima’s story. It is the story of hundreds of farmers like her, whose livelihoods depend solely on cash crops like cotton and rice.

These crops imbibe essential resources like water and nutrients but do not guarantee a high price in the market because the supply is, if not more, equal to the demand.

In fact, as of 2018, rice plantations made up 60% of the sown land of the delta districts of Tamil Nadu. Various studies show that those districts where rice cultivation is 40% of the sown land, are either suffering from acute groundwater depletion or nearing this status.

Tamil Nadu, a largely drought-prone state cannot afford to keep going in this manner. With the very evident climate change especially in terms of the distribution of rainfall over the state, farmers are struggling to keep their paddy water-filled.

And while many of them are trying to deal with the changing rain patterns and unpredictable markets, a small revolution against the rice crop is emerging within the women farmers in the state.

Sheelu Francis, a diploma holder in Gender Planning for Development from the University of London, is at the forefront of this revolution.

“The Green Revolution gave subsidies to farmers on seeds and fertilisers as well as an assured price on their crops. And many parts of India, including Tamil Nadu, saw rich and poor farmers converting their dry land into paddy fields. They dug deeper borewells to increase the water capacity of their farms and eventually this led to the water tables going down. The available water has also become salty,” Francis tells The Better India.

She also tells us that this is not where the issue ends. In fact, large scale cultivation of cash crops that have a monopoly over the farmland has also increased the use of fertilisers by nearly a hundred times.

As the fertility of land goes down, the use of chemicals has to be increased, and as this usage increases, the soil becomes more infertile. It is a vicious cycle.

“Where once, a person got about 30-33 bags of grains from one field, it is down to just 15-16 bags today. And if the processes that are followed today are continued, it won’t be long before the number comes down to 4-5 bags,” she adds.

If rice is draining the last drops of water from the soil of Tamil Nadu, it is millet that is feeding the farmer.

“We asked women farmers in the community what seeds they had. Then we learned about millet,” Francis told The Ecologist.

Millet is believed to have been domesticated in India since 1200 BCE and was once a staple crop species. It was only in recent times that the focus shifted to rice.

Francis says that millet is a great climate resilient solution that is uplifting women farmers through nutrition and family income.

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“Millet, unlike rice or sugar, is not too vulnerable to temperature or climate. It was a major crop in Tamil Nadu at one point of time, and so, it is used to the natural resources available here. It also needs 1/10th of the water quantity that rice demands, making it a wonderful choice during these hard-hitting drought,” she explains.

And so Francis started the Women’s Collective in the state to advocate the cultivation of millet over rice or sugar. It wasn’t just the family income that she was targeting. Instead, it was the nutrition and diet of the family that she focused on with the women farmers.

“Many rural families are severely affected by malnutrition and diabetes. They rely on large-scale cultivation of a single crop for their income. A small portion of this crop, usually rice, is kept aside for the family. The unstable market does not give the farmer a good price, and the diet consists mainly of rice which has resulted in these problems. Millet is a great solution here too. High in fibre, iron, minerals, and proteins, it fulfils the basic requirement of a family’s diet,” Francis tells TBI.

And so she began her quest, going village to village and speaking to farmers—especially women—about how millet can make their family healthy again. A healthy family, after all, can work better.

“Ponnuchami’s mother and father-in-law used to cultivate millet. When they started receiving a hefty credit for sugar, they adopted new farming techniques and began the cultivation of sugarcane instead. A part of their land was converted into a sugarcane field and another into paddy. As the rates of paddy came down and sugar factories started cheating her of her money, she started realising what a mess she was in. The Women’s Collective encouraged her to restart millet farming, and that’s exactly what she is doing now. As a result, the health and income of her family have seen an upward growth,” she informs us.

Nearly 30,000 farming families, just like Ponnuchami’s, have now gone back to growing the all-natural, nutritional millet.

Another incredible thing about millet is that it grows best alongside other crops. So, with minimal land use, farmers can benefit from the cultivation of two, three or even more crops.

You may also like: Tamil Nadu Organic Farmer Uses Aquatic Fern to Increase Paddy Cultivation by 35%!

One of the main issues we face is that of land. Many poor farmers, especially women, do not have land of their own. Landowners lend them their farms when the soil is nearly infertile. Our natural methods help retrieve this fertility within a couple of years. However, when the land is fertile again, the owners refuse to lend them. The method that we use is called agroecology, and although it works against us after a couple of years, it has proven to be magnificent when while we cultivate millet,” says Francis.

Speaking to The Ecologist, she had said that agroecology is a chemical-free method of growing multiple crops like millet, grains, lentils, beans, and oilseeds together. Creating a bio-diversity of sorts, they utilise the land to the maximum to avail its benefits without causing permanent damage to it.

This revolution of sorts that is fighting climate change to empower rural Tamil Nadu is helping thousands of women and families survive through what can be said as one of the most incessant problems facing the humble farmer.

If climate change is a consequence of human actions, it is only obvious that we go back to the methods that did not damage the environment and personal health of consumers.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Gomathi Marimuthu, the 30-year-old middle distance runner from Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, created history yesterday by winning India’s first gold medal in the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar.

In a classic comeback, Gomathi emerged from the back of the pack and stormed her way through the home straight to clinch the gold medal in a spectacular fashion with her personal best of 2 minutes 02.70 seconds. After all the trials and tribulations, this was Gomathi’s first major gold medal at an international event. The run at Doha beat her previous best at the Federation Cup at Patiala where she finished with 2:03.21s.

A daughter of farmers, for Gomathi, who only began professionally running when she was 20, it’s been ten long years of intense struggle. What stands out through her incredible story is the two qualities all the great athletes in the world share—character and conviction. Despite starting her career a lot later than many elite athletes, Gomathi is the name on the lips of all the major sports media publications in India.

It was her friend Shruthi who first inspired Gomathi to take her natural talent to the next level. Until then, for the student of Holy Cross College in Tiruchirappalli, it was all about getting a job and supporting her family as Gomathi was the only one among the three children (one elder brother and sister) of the family to attend college.

Despite having a regular a job at the Income Tax department in Bengaluru under the sports quota, Gomathi managed to take time out to train regularly. Years of intense training helped her reach the final of the 800m event at the Asian Championship in Pune in 2013, where she finished seventh.

Two years later, in Wuhan, China, she finished fourth in the same event. A podium finish was Gomathi’s next objective, but tragedy struck in September 2016, when colon cancer robbed her of her father. A few months later in December, the runner herself suffered a severe groin injury.

“My life turned upside down. My mother went into depression after dad passed away. It was tough to get her to do anything. The whole family was dependent on me,” she told The New Indian Express. Months later, she lost her coach at the national camp to a heart attack.

“I had no one to train me. I had to provide for the family as well,” she adds.

It was two years of agony and hard work before she could train again. In the meantime, she had missed out on major events like the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, but there was no question of giving up. However, at the start of the year, she began participating in national events and qualified for the Asian Athletics Championships with a stunning win in March at the 2019 Federation Cup in Patiala, where her timing of 2.03.21 would have secured a gold medal at the 2017 Asian Championship in Bhubaneswar had she participated.

However, this wasn’t enough for the authorities to select her for the upcoming championship. They asked her to appear for another trial, where she once again proved that her run at Patiala wasn’t a flash in the pan. She had indeed come back to the sport.

Also Read: IAS Officers Raise Money for Meghalaya Farmer’s Son: Why You Should Join Them

“Things have been challenging in the last few years. But I have never had any doubts about my abilities, and that has stood me in good stead. It took a tremendous amount of self-belief and hard work to be able to run the way I am running at the moment. 2019 has been a great year for me so far as this is the best I have performed on the track in the last few years,” she told the Times of India after her impressive win in Doha yesterday.

As fans of Indian athletics, we hope she continues to set the bar higher, winning greater glories for herself, her family and her country.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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In 1992, doctor-couple Regi M George and Lalitha visited Sittilingi.

Tucked near the foothills of the Kalrayan and Sitteri hill ranges, this remote tribal village in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu, was cut off from the rest of the modern world.

It was home to ‘Malavasis’ or ‘Hill People’ who eke out a living through rain-fed agriculture.

How did the couple get there?

The couple first met as students of the Government T D Medical College, Alappuzha.

In the early 90s, after completing their medical training, Dr Regi and Dr Lalitha worked in a hospital in Gandhigram. People from far-flung areas travelled miles for the treatment of preventable illnesses like diarrhea and childhood pneumonia.

Rattled by the lack of healthcare access, the couple decided to backpack for a year, and document the most sensitive areas in need of help.

This quest led them to Sittilingi.

What disconcerted them most was the sheer lack of healthcare facilities.

In the advent of any medical emergency, the tribals would have to travel to Salem or to Dharmapuri. Because the nearest hospital was more than 50 kilometers away!

And to find one in the event of surgical intervention meant travel over 100 kilometres!

What pushed the couple further was that this hamlet recorded an infant mortality rate of 150 per 1,000 babies, the highest in all of India!

One out of five babies in the Sittilingi Valley died before their first year, and many mothers died during childbirth.

Located in the middle of a forest, buses ran four times a day. But getting to the bus stand required a long walk, lasting several hours.

It could have been easy for Regi and Lalitha to walk away. But they didn’t.

They decided to stay and make affordable healthcare available to Sittilingi’s two lakh people.

Since then, it’s been 25 years and the couple is only moving forward with their project, Tribal Health Initiative (THI).

The hospital was functioning from a hut that had a single room which operated as an out-patient and in-patient unit. All it had was a 100-W bulb and a bench for the patient to lay on.

Speaking to The Better India, Dr Regi says, “We had no money to buy land, so we set up a small clinic on government land, nothing more than a small hut built by the tribals. We worked out of this hut for three years, conducting deliveries and minor surgeries on the floor. ”

Friends and well-wishers donated funds to build a ten-bedded hospital. Today, they have come a long way from the thatched hut to a 35-bed full-fledged hospital, which is equipped with an ICU and ventilator, a dental clinic, a labour room, a neonatal room, an emergency room, a fully functional laboratory, a modern operation theatre and other facilities like X-Ray, Ultrasound, endoscopy, and echocardiography, like any other modern hospital.

Besides, the infant mortality rate in Sittilingi has reduced to 20 per 1,000, now one of the lowest in India. Moreover, no mothers have died in childbirth in the last ten years!

How did the couple achieve it?

Most deliveries in these areas happened at home. A lack of knowledge about childbirth complications or adequate postnatal care led to a very high rate of infant and maternal mortality.

He shares, “We started training health auxiliaries who were tribal women in their 40s and 50s to identify complications during childbirth. They visited homes in their respective areas during each delivery and ensured hygiene and sanitation. For instance, they checked if the umbilical cord was cut and tied properly.”

He adds that in the case of a complicated pregnancy, they would ensure that the mother was rushed to the hospital as soon as she went into labour. These women also visited the newborn within a week to check upon its health.

When they first began, they had to raise funds, even for the simplest procedures. They were also isolated without family or friends.

Besides, their two boys were young and had no schools in the vicinity. But they did not give up. The boys were home-schooled until class four.

Was there resistance among the tribals? Naturally.

But over the years, looking at their work and hardships, all to give the community the best healthcare, helped the community trust the couple.

“They had not seen a real doctor in a long time. If a child were admitted due to meningitis, the villagers would think it was affected by spirits and look for a witch doctor. In the case of snakebite, they wanted to do a puja. We learnt that one of the most important practices was never to counter their beliefs. If they said they wanted a puja to be conducted, we let them do it by the bedside.”

Dr Regi adds how their idea was to make quality healthcare available and affordable. Even today, deliveries are conducted at costs as low as Rs 1,000, and 80-90 per cent of OPD admissions are reserved for the tribal population.

“Some may think it is biased, but it is really them (the tribals) who need our help the most,” he insists.

How then does the hospital run?

Sustenance is difficult, but the couple isn’t giving up.

“We charge nominal amounts. In most cases, people pay, but there are times when they just give us what they have. So the hospital’s annual turnover, donations from good Samaritans, mostly Indians and NRIs and CSR funds, help us run THI without any government help.”

Are they in need of funds? Yes.

But not for expansion but to further subsidise treatments for the poor.

“We do not want cost to hinder their access to healthcare. So whether they can afford it or not, we want to help them. And of course, there is a constant need for money to keep these services running. We issue a pink card for all the babies born in the hospital, which allows them free care until the age of three. Because this service is free, parents take their children to the hospital. But if this service were to stop because of the lack of funds, the parents won’t get their children to the hospital until their health deteriorates drastically,” he informs.

Similarly, they also run an old age insurance scheme which provides access to free healthcare all-year round at Rs 100.

But their work doesn’t end here. The couple has also started an array of other projects to empower the community.

Also Read: Rattled by Farmer Suicides & Health Issues, Telangana Village Turns 250 Acres Organic!

Employing women

More than 95 per cent of their staff is tribals. Dr Lalitha has been ensuring that women employed at THI also get employee benefits like Provident Fund (PF) and gratuity.

“Most of our nurses, lab technicians, paramedics, and health auxiliaries are tribal boys and girls, who we have been trained by us or others. It is a hospital for the tribals by the tribals, operating in a 50 km radius, serving one lakh people every year.”

Getting women on board wasn’t easy. Especially when it was uncommon for daughters to work since they were married off early. Today, these women are skilled to the extent that they can run the hospital without supervision.

Organic Farming

Under Sittinlingi Organic Farmers’ Association (SOFA), formed in 2004, they have mobilised over 500 farmers to give up the use of pesticides and grow chemical-free food, providing a green solution to long-standing woes of low yield, uncertain incomes, and infertile land.

Preserving culture and the dying arts

The couple is also preserving the history and cultural heritage of the tribe by reviving the dying art of Lambadi embroidery. This art form is an amalgamation of pattern darning, mirror work, cross stitch, overlaid and quilting stitches with borders of ‘Kangura’ patchwork done on loosely-woven dark blue or red handloom base fabric.

Often mistaken as Kutchi (Kachhi) embroidery because of mirror work, the shells and coins are unique to this type of embroidery, with the stitches being different.

Dr Lalitha is working towards promoting the Lambadi handcrafts under the name ‘Porgai’, which stands for ‘pride’ in the Lambadi dialect.

Livelihood

Under the brand ‘Svad’, women entrepreneurs are given credits to make organic products using local produce. They make over 25 organic products which includes powders of different grains, millets and spices, helping them earn additional income.

Insurance

They also launched a farmer insurance policy, under which every farmer family is insured for Rs 50,000 in case of death. This money is pooled from within the community, where every farmer contributes Rs 100.

Dr Regi observes, “Just building and running a hospital isn’t enough. Whether it is eating healthy chemical-free food by adopting organic farming or promoting entrepreneurship among women, the key to a healthy community is dependent on upliftment in different fields.”

In his final message to other healthcare experts, Dr Regi says, “Our minds were full of doubts when we started. We had no money when we started, but we had sincerity of purpose. And sometimes, you just have to close your eyes, trust yourself and take that leap of faith. Like Paulo Coelho says, ‘When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.’ The same happened to us. There is a crying need in our country, and we need to extend a helping hand.”

If this story inspired you, donate to their cause.

Bank details for Indian donors

A/c holder’s name: tribal health initiative
A/c. number: 11689302723
Branch: State bank of India, Kotapatty, Harur
IFSC code: SBIN0006244

Donors abroad can get in touch via email at thisittilingi@gmail.com, and the team will guide them.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Last month, P Sanjai Gandhi’s five-year-long effort finally came to fruition when the Thirubuvanam sari, produced by the registered weavers of the Thirubuvanam Silk Handloom Weavers Co-operative (Thico) Production and Sales Society Ltd, acquired the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

Woven by weavers in a small town of the same name near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district, the Thirubuvanam silk is known for its rich quality with fine counts of filature silk.

“The filature silk for both warp and weft results in superior quality fabric…The pallu is continuously woven on the loom and runs on from the body of the saree, unlike other sarees where the body and pallu are woven separately. The body and border are also woven in the same single warp. With the use of pure zari, these drapes are styled with various motifs that include manga malai, rudraksham, kodi visiri and neli,” says this description.

Gandhi, who was helped in this effort by the Textile Ministry, is the president of the Intellectual Property Attorney Association and an Advocate in the Madras High Court.

Thanks to his efforts, weaver societies, including Thico, with more than 2000 weavers registered can use the Thirubuvanam brand name to sell their product.

A GI tag is a sign that is used to link a particular item with its geographical place of origin and is mainly used as a certification for its quality. GI Laws protect an item from being duplicated in any way elsewhere.

“Any registered association, society, government body can apply for the GI tag. However, it is conferred on certain goods like agricultural, natural, handicrafts, which demonstrate a certain uniqueness, quality, reputation, special characteristics and proof of historical origins from the land where they emerged. For example, the Kancheepuram Silk saree weave goes back 400 years from the town of the same name. Thus far, approximately 345 products in India have GI tags on them,” says Gandhi, in a conversation with The Better India.

As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into force in 2002.

In the following year, Darjeeling Tea became the first item to receive the GI tag. Thus, in the jurisdictions in which the Darjeeling geographical indication is protected, producers of Darjeeling tea can exclude the use of the term “Darjeeling Tea” for tea not grown in their tea gardens or not produced according to the standards set out in the code of practice for the geographical indication.

“The GI tag protects the name, improves the local market, protects production quality and eventually increases sales. Duplicates of the said product are avoided since unauthorised production is not allowed, and thus, the local economy is protected,” says Gandhi.

Gandhi is a native of Thanjavur and a law graduate from the Madras Government College. During his storied career, he has also set up the Sulakshana Panneer Selvam Intellectual Property Rights for Agriculture & Rural Development Centre in 2015, and authored a book titled ‘Arts and Crafts of India: Registered GI Products’ to help researchers from abroad ascertain the intricacies of GI registered art and craft items in the country. Today, he works with a team of five junior lawyers working on IP-related issues in Chennai.

It was the conferment of GI tag for Darjeeling Tea which inspired him to apply for GI tag for various products from his home state.

He began with the famous Kancheepuram Silk and in 2010, 21 cooperative societies and 10 individuals received the GI tag.

As per the GI act, only these authorised makers can claim their product to be Kancheepuram Silk. Others can also register themselves as makers, but they must stick with certain basic characteristics (weave), production process and territorial rights. It also protects the item (Kancheepuram Silk) in foreign countries under the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, of which India is a signatory.

Following this success, he was among the two IP attorneys from India selected by the Japan Patent Office for their 70-day training programme in Tokyo in 2007. This was a turning point in his life and furthered his journey in this practice.

Of the 30 items conferred with the GI tag in Tamil Nadu, Gandhi has led efforts for 18 including Eathomozhy Tall Coconut, Thanjavur Doll, Bhavani Jamakkalam, Madurai Sungudi, Thanjavur Paintings, Salem Venpattu, Kovai Kora Cotton Sarees and Mahabalipuram Stone Sculpture, among others such items.

For his efforts, he was conferred with the National IP Award by the Government of India last year under the ‘Top Individual for Best facilitation of Registration of GI and Promotion of registered GI in India’ category.

He dedicates his award to the training programme he underwent in Japan, which further accentuated his interest in the field.

Having said, the process of applying for a GI tag is a touch cumbersome.

“It takes a minimum of one year to grant an application. The GI Registry issues a formality check report within the appropriate time from the date of application, and once applicants receive the report, they must reply within two months. After their response, the GI Registry constitutes a Consultative Group of seven persons who are experts. The applicants have to give a presentation about the concerned goods seeking GI tag before this group, and during this presentation, they are asked about the product’s uniqueness, special characteristics and historical origins,” informs Gandhi.

After this meeting, their application is rejected, accepted, or an examination report is issued. If the application is approved, will be published in public journal. Once published, the GI Registry waits for four months to offer any objections. If no objection is forthcoming, the application is granted,” he adds.

The entire process naturally requires a lot of research on the part of lawyers. Take the example of Ponni rice, which a Malaysian company tried to patent.

Also: Meet Nani Palkhivala, The Legendary Lawyer Who Saved Our Democracy

This claim was contested in a Kuala Lumpur court with the Indian applicants claiming that this variety of rice was named after—and in tribute to—the Kaveri Delta region in India. Locally, the Kaveri river is also known locally as ponni.

“The judge ruled that ponni is descriptive of a variety of rice originating from Tamil Nadu in India and recognisable to consumers as such,” says this report in The Star, a Malaysian news publication. The patent application was thankfully rejected.

When asked what motivates him to work on these applications and that too without profit, Sanjai insists that as a Gandhian, one of his key objectives is rural development. Additionally, GI tags help maintain high quality standards and protect local cultures and economies.

“I am currently working on applications for 30 unique items in the state.This is a country blessed with unique products, and we must absolutely protect what is ours, and ensure that certain qualities and characteristics unique to a place must not be forgotten or usurped by outside vested interests,” he adds.

Unlike our fickle politicians, it’s dedicated people like Sanjai Gandhi, who are among the true protectors of local heritage and culture.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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Parched lands, suicides and forced migration – these are the top three issues that farmers in India face. Even after toiling under the sun for hours and growing food round the year, farmers cannot afford meals for days together.

This is the irony of working in the agricultural sector in our country.

In a bid to improve the condition of farming, and change the way farmers are perceived, Shankar Venkataraman, a techie, quit his thriving job in the United States and started organic farming on 23 acres at Vacaville, California in 2008 and then moved to India in 2015.

Shankar’s tryst with organic farming began when his 6-month-old daughter Kirthi was diagnosed with Eczema in 2005, a condition where the skin becomes inflamed and itchy due to a combination of genetics and environmental factors.

Though Shankar was able to afford the best treatment for his daughter, as a father he needed to do something more as the treatments did not solve the root cause—the environmental toxins that affect the immune systems of kids.

Speaking to The Better India (TBI), Shankar, an alumnus of BITS Pilani, Rajasthan, says,

I worked in France for 3 years and moved to California in 1999. My daughter’s episode in 2005 put me into depression. I quickly figured out that the food we consume can be toxic even in the most developed countries. I started reading many books related to food and nutrition and that is how I came across organic farming.

One morning, he made the decision to grow his food in his backyard with the encouragement from his dear ones. Through trial and error, Shankar developed sustainable ways to grow food and after three years of travelling and working in farms across California, he began his own startup ‘Hillview Organics’. To get the best results he also attended conferences on sustainable farming and met several experts in the field.

The firm supplied chemical-free and 100 per cent natural produce from its 23-acre land to local restaurants. During his more-than-a-decade experience in farming, he received tremendous support from his wife Sujatha who works as a Software Architect in Silicon Valley. He owes his continuous work to the sacrifices she has made to help him travel far away from the family most of the time.

Once he had acquired enough expertise in organic farming, Shankar wanted to help his roots. He took the difficult decision of staying away from his family, and moved back to India to empower the local farmers.

Some part of me always wanted to return to India. Being well-versed with the deplorable plight of our farmers, it was the perfect opportunity for me to use my knowledge for their upliftment, he says.

Bringing Organic Farming In Thally

Shankar started working at Mapletree farm in 2015 in collaboration with Infosys co-founder Shibulal and Kumari Shibulal, OnMobile founder, Mouli Raman.

For Shankar, the biggest challenge was to bring the farmers in the loop and convince them about growing veggies without pesticides and chemicals.

Farmers all across India are addicted to chemicals that degrade the soil quality. Depending excessively on chemicals also increases the yearly cost of production per acre. Many farmers are already aware about the perils of inorganic practices but they continue with it for their livelihood. Long term benefits of organic farming methods far outweigh the short terms results of using chemicals, he says.

The other challenge was to build soil in tropical climate. The soil was in poor condition at first and most plants died in that soil just few weeks after planting. Using the techniques he learned in California and traditional Indian methods of farming, he built the soil to hold more organic matter.  He also worked with people in Bengaluru who wanted to eat guaranteed organic food and built a large customer base of direct farm to home.

“Soil is the main product and fruits and vegetables are byproducts,” says Shankar. “Soil health directly relates to plant, human and animal health. Soil cannot be replaced or lost as it forms the basis of life on the planet. But current agriculture practices treat soil building as lesser priority and chemical based destructive methods as the way to go forward,” he adds further.

Today, he has built two farms and has more than 35 acres under farming activity.

Instead of taking a theoretical approach and preaching the farmers, Shankar promised farmers and their families with a stable salary, food and accommodation.

He also decided to sponsor their children’s education and give them health insurance with help from Shibulal and Kumari Shibulal. He made an offer that the farmers could not refuse.

Now, the fear of incurring losses was eliminated. The firm formally started its activities with around 10 farmers.

Meanwhile, Shankar taught them about seeding, planting, weeding, composting, farm mechanics, soil biology and chemistry, soil building methods and greenhouse production methods, marketing and sales of organic products.

The farmers begin their day by doing various tasks such as harvesting, planting, preparing field beds to plant crops, composting work, collecting, dry waste and green waste across the farm, trellising work, vegetable and fruit grading work and packing milk, planting trees and watering trees.

Growing seedlings, for example involves, implanting seeds in trays that contains a mixture of humic acid, vermicompost, soil and cocopeat. The seeds are allowed to germinate and once the sapling reaches a specific size, they are shifted to the open field or large greenhouses that grow specific crops.

To protect the plants from insects, pest and diseases, sticky traps and pheromone traps are deployed and various preventive techniques like the use of organic pesticides, are followed. 

Post lunch, the farmers move on to pack the grown vegetables. The packaged food is then delivered to the customer’s’ doorstep in Bengaluru by 9 pm. The farm also supplies to a number of reputed organic stores in the city. 

We grow close to 60 varieties of fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, potatoes, brinjal, leafy vegetables, snake gourd, pumpkins, garlic, carrots and so on. Our loyal customers expect all kinds of veggies from us. Heavy focus is put on soil biology to ensure soil is rich with bacteria and fungi and other soil organisms that keep pumping nutrients for plants growing constantly, says Shankar.

With a rapid growth in customer base, the income of the farmers has also increased significantly.

Every farmer who is associated with Mapletree, today, earns anything between 12,000 to 30,000 per month. 

Shankar is thankful to Shibulal and Kumari Shibulal for their financial support.

The farmers hail from different backgrounds and age groups. However, Shankar has consciously tried to bring in the third generation farmers who otherwise would have taken up blue collar jobs.

Shankar has built a strong network of contacts in up to 20 villages which keeps a steady stream of agricultural workers waiting to join the permanent jobs offered by Mapletree Farm at Devaganapalli village. This is a significant drift from current agriculture industry trends including lack of permanent employment due to financial pressures faced by farmers.

The old generations of farmers do not want their children to suffer from agricultural crisis. Thus, they educate them, and push them into taking up secured jobs. If this goes on then the farmer’s population will go down in future. Thus, our objective is to loop in the young guns and tell them that farming is a lucrative job as well, says Shankar.

28-year-old Pown Durai from Tirunelveli district is grateful that he chose farming instead of stone cutting work. He has a diploma in electrical engineering.

Since I do not spend my money on food and accommodation, I save some and the rest I give it to my family back home. Our family’s financial status has improved. The highlight of my job is the learning atmosphere I work in. Spending my day amidst greenery is very relaxing, Pown says.

Like Pown, 23-year-old Kaliraj is also an integral part of the Mapletree. In 2015, he had started out as an employee and now he is the Harvest and Inventory Manager. Kaliraj works diligently and has taken only 10 days off in three years,  “I start my work around 5 am and there hasn’t been a single day when I didn’t feel like working. This has now become my home.”

Besides selling organic food, the startup also provides a range of fresh dairy products including milk, paneer and butter, “We provide milk at Rs 80 per litre. The high price is due to the quantity our cows produce. Unlike the foreign breeds that give around 15-20 litres, desi cows produce 4-6 litres,” says Shankar.

It has been three years since the company was launched, and today it has a customer base of over 6,000. More than 100 plus farmers are directly benefiting from Mapletree. They help in producing and supplying hundreds of tonnes of organic food every year.

The farm also supports less than 100 selected organic farmers in various farms nearby who have been farming organically for a long time.

In the next 5-10 years, Shakar hopes to scale up organic farming involving more farmers in its Mapletree family. Shankar also plans to plant 2000 plus species of trees and plants in each of the two farms to turn them into highly productive food forests.

Shankar has already started working towards his goal by spreading awareness. He invites school students and gives them a tour of the farm under School for Experiential Education (SEED) programme. 

When asked if he misses his family back in the States he says, “Not being there during my daughter’s formative years makes me sad at times. But helping my farm family conquer the agriculture sector makes it all worthy. Encouragement and support from our loyal customers makes it all really worthwhile.”

Shankar had to change his life for the well-being of farmers. It is people like him who come as a ray of hope for our distressed farmers. Besides, practicing organic farming now will be beneficial in the long run.

More than a 1000 people have approached him in the last 3 years to help train and learn farming methods, “Farming is like climbing a mountain with no top. The climb never ends as the learning never stops  and this makes farming a true adventure. By ensuring that the food we consume is grown in clean and biologically rich soil, naturally, you are protecting the future of your children and safeguarding their health and also ensuring that the agricultural lands will feed them and their generations sustainably,” Shankar signs off.

Get in touch with Mapletree here.

Also Read: Meghalaya Teacher Grows Unique Turmeric, Helps 900+ Farmers Triple Their Income!

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Nine-year-old Krishna has been looking forward to playing his favourite game of waging a battle against the Kurichi Kulam, a fishing pond in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

It will be his second week in the cleanup drive undertaken by the people of the city.

His first attempt was a huge accomplishment, he says. It helped him feel like a Superman for protecting the environment.

Looking at Krishna’s dedication to clean the pond, R Manikandan is transported to his childhood. As a child, Manikandan would draw water from a nearby public well in Sundarapuram until it dried up in 2000.

This bitter memory, coupled with the news of drying water bodies in Coimbatore, and across the country, pushed Manikandan to take action rather than being another spectator.

His first cleanup activity was with the Coimbatore Panchayat fifteen years ago. Knowing that he would need an extra set of hands for the massive cleanup drives, he joined the government authorities and started helping them every weekend.

Speaking to The Better India, Manikandan says,

While growing up, everyone around me complained about the issues in society, but there were very few who acted upon them. So, I would identify the polluted water bodies and notify the authorities. With their help, I would clean the ponds and lakes.

After gaining expertise and experience, the 37-year-old founded Kovai Kulangal Padhukaapu Amaippu in February 2017.

“A few like-minded people had good intentions, but there was no organised way to carry out the cleanup activities. I also wanted to bring about a behavioural change among the people and make them realise how they can contribute to safeguarding the environment,” says Manikandan.

He owns a small lathe workshop in the city.

Prathap Nandagopalan, one of the volunteers, met Mandikandan during the famous Jallikattu protests in 2017.

He tells The Better India, “Water is our primary resource. Due to climate changes, the monsoon season is irrational. In such a situation, conserving existing water bodies becomes very crucial. Coimbatore receives rain during monsoon and water from the Shola forests throughout the year, but polluted and blocked water streams cut off the water supply to our homes. We need to treat and reuse the water we have.”

The Noyyal river originates from the Western Ghats and travels 180 kilometres, joining the Kaveri river at Karur. It fills around 32 lakes that come under the jurisdiction of the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Central Public Works Department.

Most of the water bodies have dried up due to encroachments, waste management, and lack of maintenance.

The NGO is now reviving one pond at a time and ensuring adequate water supply in the city.

One water body at a time

Two years ago, when Mandikanan and his teammates pressed the ‘send’ button on WhatsApp, they had not expected their weekend activity to turn into a full-time mission. Around 50 citizens turned up at Perur lake at 6 am to remove the Juliflora. The volunteers also de-silted the lake.

The 300-acre lake had 400 volunteers the very next week!

Mandikanan attributes the rise in volunteers to social and local media.

It took the citizens around three weeks to clean the 300-acre lake. The eight tonnes of waste removed was given to the Municipal Corporation.

The success of Perur lake was a huge morale boost for Mandikanan’s core team comprising 50 people. There has been no looking back since. They have cleaned multiple water bodies, including ponds, check dams and lakes.

Another significant cleanup drive was at the Vellalore lake. Two decades ago, the water channel of the lake was blocked due to waste dumping by encroachers around the water body. 

Since the team did not have sufficient funds, the volunteers freed the lake from human and plastic waste manually.

They worked for eight weeks and opened a 6.5-kilometre stretch of the channel. With help from the PWD, the volunteers also rehabilitated encroachers from a 1-kilometre stretch.

“It was one of our toughest and most memorable projects. The encroachers and sludge inside the lake made it very difficult for our volunteers to step inside and clean it. It was because of their determination and efforts that the lake was cleaned,” says Mandikanan.

The Sundakamuthoor ancient well was covered with mud and waste, but with the help of the heritage department, the volunteers recovered it.

Other water bodies that the NGO was able to clean are Sengulam lake, Kuniyamuthur water channel, Kumarasamy lake, Valankulam lake, Chithiraichavadi check dam, and the Singanallur check dam.

Post Cleaning Activity

Merely cleaning the water bodies was not enough, says Prathap. He continues, “All the efforts of our volunteers will go in vain if the lake comes back to its previous condition. A project is completed only if it can sustain itself.”

The NGO would thus undertake extensive awareness drives with the locals residing near the respective lakes. In addition, the NGO sowed 1.36 lakh palm seeds in and around the water bodies that they restored.

They are now growing a Miyawaki forest at Vellalore lake. It is a Japanese method of tree plantation that grows saplings ten times faster, with the forest being 30 times denser. Around 2,500 saplings of 60 varieties of medicinal plants have been sown. The final goal is to create a forest with 16,000 trees.  

In terms of impact, the clean lakes and new plants have resulted in the return of 75 species of migratory and wetland birds.

Dumping waste directly into the lake has led to the disappearance of exotic species of birds across the country. The cleanup drive is bringing back the flora-fauna of Coimbatore, says Prathap.

Where the NGO stands today

The two-year journey of Kovai Kulangal Padhukaapu Amaippu saw some successes and several challenges. From acquiring permissions each time they wanted to clean a pond to sourcing enough funds for the activities, the NGO overcame challenges along the way.

For now, the funding of the cleanup campaign is done via donations from volunteers and citizens.

When asked about the final goal of the NGO, Mandikanan answers, “The objective of the NGO was to channelise the activities and make citizens responsible. We aim to revive, restore, and rejuvenate, as many water bodies in the city as possible.”

Also Read: This Eco-Warrior Turned a Filthy 10-Acre Lake into a 30-Ft Deep Water Reservoir!

If you wish to help or join the NGO, contact them here.

With inputs from Ahmed Sherrif

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Do you remember the covers on your school textbooks?

I cannot remember mine for the simple reason that I never found them attractive. I preferred covering the books with brown covers than look at their dull colours and dispirited animations.

I cannot speak for everyone, but Kathir Arumugam from Tamil Nadu echoes my complaints.

However, unlike most of us, Kathir is fixing boring textbook covers by replacing them with eye-catching and captivating designs.

The 33-year-old has been hired by the Tamil Nadu State Board to redesign textbook covers and make them interesting enough for children to judge the books by their covers!

Ironically, Kathir is a school dropout who quit studying when he was in the ninth grade.

A Journey That Started With Quitting

At a time when his classmates were planning their futures and deciding which college to go to, Kathir’s decision to quit school was not an easy one.

A native of Arachalur, a small village near Erode, Kathir was in the ninth grade when he realised that even if he cleared his 10th boards, he wouldn’t be able to afford college. Besides, he knew that his real calling was in the field of art.

After his father passed away, his mother worked as a daily wage labourer and juggled odd jobs to raise her two sons.

Speaking to The Better India about his interest in art, Kathir says,

I remember every art camp that was conducted in our school every year. For me, drawing and painting were as good as meditation.

While Kathir was passionate about his art, he was aware of its limited monetary scope.

Thus, he decided to study financial management, but his qualification or the lack of it, came in the way.

After he quit school, he took menial jobs, at places from where he could learn and grow. For instance, he worked as a tea boy in a design company in Erode.

We lived on a hand-to-mouth existence as my mother was the sole earner and used to earn Rs 80 per day. I wanted to help her, but at the same time, not give up on my dreams, so I found a mid-way, he says.

It was here, at this very designing company, that he was first introduced to the concept of graphic designing. Every day, he would serve chai to the graphic team, and study their work in detail.

Someone told me about the graphic designing course where I could polish my art, but the classes would cost Rs 4,000. It was a huge amount for me, so I continued working, Kathir adds.  

From painting houses for Sri Lankan refugees, working as a construction labourer to delivering newspapers, Kathir worked hard to buy the necessary stationery to practice art at home.

I knew that I would be tied up in jobs and eventually forget my talent. I took conscious efforts to save money and time. A person does not become an artist overnight. It takes days of practice to master the art, he says.

Once he saved up enough to afford the classes, he enrolled in them. But leaving the job to pursue his passion was not an option.

From 8 pm-5 am, he worked in a night shift and at 6 am, he attended the class. He travelled every day for 20 kilometres from the class, “I am very grateful to my teachers for letting me pay my fee in instalments and complete my course in six months instead of three.”

Finding Recognition: Up and Onwards

Kathir had several mentors who inspired him to improve his art. Shivaraj from Cuckoo Forest School was one of his first gurus who introduced him to the world of books.

“He gifted me a book by Vincent Van Gogh. The Dutch post-impressionist painter’s articulation of Western art helped me concentrate on minor details, which can make a lot of difference. Shiva anna also introduced me to artists from Chennai and took me to various art galleries,” he says.

One of the artists liked his work and got him a job at a regional magazine in Tamil Nadu. Working as a cover designer for five years was the turning point of his life.

Kathir then went on to design book covers for noted Tamil authors like Sujatha, S Ramakrishna, Bala Kumaran, Jeyamohan and so on.

In 2018, Kathir’s life took another turn after he received a call from IAS officer and collector T Udhayachandran from the Tamil Nadu Text Book Corporation.

“They were looking for a designer who could design quirky covers for children. It was a proud moment for me when the State Board approached a school dropout to design school textbook covers. My prayers were answered,” he chuckles.

Kathir has so far designed over 400 book covers for students from Classes 1-12. He now works at a designing lab in Nungambakkam, designing textbooks.

When asked his secret recipe behind designing attractive covers, Kathir answers,

It should have a message disguised under the creative image. It is not very difficult to design such covers. I only have to think like a child while doing so.

The Way Forward

Kathir wishes to start his own art classes to help children who cannot afford expensive sessions. In addition, he also wants to develop Tamil font styles.

“There are thousands of font styles available for the English language but very few for Tamil. I want to work on newer font styles,” he concludes.

As for his family’s financial condition, it has improved significantly, especially since Kathir’s work is now being recognised. 

Also Read: How a Small Udupi Eatery Started by a School Dropout Became a 300 Cr Food Chain!

Here are some colourful textbook covers designed by him:

You can get in touch with Kathir here.

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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Not every person, who heads out to bigger cities for better education and job opportunities and makes it big, feels the need to give back to their hometown. On the other hand, there is that rare breed of individuals who go the extra mile to do their bit for the place that nurtured them.

Bengaluru based Saravanan Thiyagarajan is one of those rare ones who is in love with his hometown Namakkal, a quaint little village by the foothills of the Kolli Malai in Tamil Nadu.

The corporate professional visits home once every 2-3 weeks, despite getting a job in a city more than 250 km away from his hometown. And during those visits, he attempts to rehabilitate local government schools in and around Namakkal with better teaching aids and facilities for the students; an initiative he supported for almost a decade.

Among the various initiatives that Saravanan began for his hometown, the most significant one involved solving the water crisis in the region three years ago.

For this purpose, he joined hands with like-minded villagers of Namakkal and other volunteers from different colleges.

Titled Wake Our Lake (WOL), this initiative took birth after Saravanan came across a heartbreaking sight. Moved, he brainstormed with the people concerned in the associated sectors and organised a people-powered mission.

“Three years ago, I was moved by the plight of an old lady in search of water with a clay-pot on her head, whom I saw while travelling back to Bengaluru. The region was suffering from severe drought. Why I say severe is because even the palm trees in the region had begun to dry. Being one of the most water-retentive species that can survive even in the most arid of weather conditions, this was a stark reminder of how severe the issue of water scarcity was in the region,” Saravanan tells The Better India (TBI).

What aggrieved him further were his childhood memories of his village. Replete with green cover and ample rainfall, the village of his youth was the opposite of the picture in front of him. “Throughout the way back home, I kept thinking about what could I do to bring some respite to the situation. All the education initiatives that I’d taken forward did not hold value for me anymore, because people could survive without education but not without water,” he says.

Back in Bengaluru, he was stuck in traffic between work and home, mulling over the grim realities of a water crisis; its horrors and aftermath. He thought of bringing people he knew together with those in the field who could provide valuable input to resolve the water crisis.

He created groups on Whatsapp as well as Facebook for the same purpose.

“Luckily, we got Arul Shekhar on board, who is an IIT engineer. He readily agreed to sign up for the initiative. Our first step was to figure out how we could go about the problem, and our answer lay in lakes. It was imperative to recover groundwater table to counter water scarcity, for which it was even more important to resuscitate the local water bodies,” explains Saravanan.

And they began with primary field study in Namakkal. There were two lakes in the region, and both were extremely different.

“One was quite huge but didn’t have any inlet chamber. This meant that no matter how much rainfall the region received, water could not be contained effectively, and instead would flow away. With Arul’s expertise, we decided to make an inlet chamber stretching one km in length,” Saravanan says.

Supporting the initiative were NSS volunteers from nearby colleges who helped build this canal.

“The lake was built about forty years ago, be it luck or whatever you want to call it, the very next day after the completion of the canal, we had rainfall, and the entire lake filled up. Never during the entirety of its existence had it filled up ever!” adds Saravanan excitedly.

Though the group initially faced difficulty in getting permission from the forest department to construct the canal, many government officials eventually came on board to encourage them. Additionally, Saravanan wanted to revive the local biodiversity in the region as well and organised many seedball competitions in the nearby government schools.

“Even here, we had NSS volunteers actively participating, who planted a lot of saplings. Organising competitions always works well with students, who give their best irrespective of what the initiative is about. The seedball competitions were quite successful, and we even gave awards to these volunteers to keep them motivated. Thanks to their extensive efforts, we have observed a considerable change in the groundwater table. The villagers had never even dreamt of the wells receiving water from this lake, but they did!” says Saravanan.

We spoke to Suresh Belukurichi, a lawyer who lives in the region.

“The landscape here had primarily been green. However, over time, a steady decrease in rainfall has been observed and along with that, an increase in borewells. We believe these factors played a drastic role in reducing the groundwater level and water capacity of the nearby water bodies,” he explains.

Though the villagers weren’t too worried about the lack of potable water, they felt that without proper intervention, this concern might also land on their plate soon. “When Saravanan and people associated with Wake Our Lake initially proposed the idea, we weren’t very convinced about its effectiveness, but their dedication motivated us, and thankfully, the incoming rains worked in our favour,” he shares.

As for the impact, Suresh says that all their efforts paid off, as they could almost immediately witness an increase in the groundwater level. “Environmental effects were quite obvious. With low groundwater level, one could directly see the consequences on the soil, with it becoming dry and the subsoil malnourished. But with a recharged groundwater table, we have noticed that the soil is slowly coming back to its natural state,” Suresh adds.

Further helping their work was the entry of Dr. A Velmurugan, a Senior Soil Scientist from ISRO who, after being impressed with their work, offered to provide guidance. Together, they moved on to the next lake.

“Here, the issue was different: the catchment area was quite huge, while the lake was relatively small. So there is a principle in water conservation science: the fast moving water should slow down, while the slow-moving water should percolate. In this case, whenever it rained, water would never stay for more than 15 days and flow away as small streams. To contain this rainwater for more than four months, we decided to build check dams, which helped in water percolation as well. We also built a rainwater recharge pit, with the help of Dr. Velmurugan, which collectively helped in successful recharging the groundwater table,” he explains.

Motivated by the changes in these areas, many farmers from the nearby villages approached the WOL team for assistance. “We decided to help these folks through a fundraising campaign to build a lake. Lakes are constructed mostly through government initiatives, but this was perhaps the first time farmers in Tamil Nadu came together for such an initiative. With the money we managed to collect, we purchased a 2-acre-plot and managed to build a lake quite successfully. I’d add that this was one of our best accomplishments on behalf of Wake Our Lake,” adds Saravanan proudly.

By then, the group had already spread out its wings and was working to revive the 1,300-acre Panjapatti lake in Karur district.

The lake was infested with a flowering weed species, because of which the rest of the vegetation was slowly dying. “We got a special crawler machine to fix this situation, for it wasn’t possible to tackle the weed on our own. This machine helped in uprooting, crushing and converting the weed into biomass that could be used in factories. We also planted native trees in the region to maintain  the green cover,” Saravanan adds.

Their guiding force then extended to about 13 districts in the State. They have also worked in Puducherry, where they cleaned up a small pond and gave guidance to the locals to filter drainage water and reuse it for watering plants.

Their work and its impact became so recognised that a local TV show hosted by actor Vijay Sethupathi invited Saravanan. This helped in raising greater awareness about WOL, and they ended up getting a lot of traction, in terms of support and people seeking guidance.

Today, they are working in tandem with 20 districts spread across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where every district has at least 5-6 people actively engaged in lake rejuvenation.

“We help these volunteers with all kinds of support they might need by putting in place a set of guidelines which anyone can use to initiate lake revival in their area. This is based on our experience that would help anyone wanting to take up lake revival in their area. We give them step-by-step guidance, including seeking permits or other equipment. We intended to streamline the process for those who want to do good, but didn’t know where to start. We have a minimum of 20 activists who have teamed up with us and are taking forward lake revival activities in their areas,” he adds.

If you wish to look up the guidelines, click here.

Saravanan is looking out for more people in the State, who share as much passion and zeal for such conservation activities as he does and wants to take forward the work on their own. “This would ensure that work continues to happen efficiently even if I’m not there to personally guide the people undertaking it. It is not possible for me to be everywhere,” laughs Saravanan.

He further adds that some Sri Lankans have also approached WOL, seeking guidance to revive their lakes.

“Here, the scenario is in stark contrast to the lakes we have worked with. As the town is near the coast, all the rainwater was flowing into the sea. The people wanted to revive the groundwater table in such a scenario. So we are working with them and are studying their soil type to figure out solutions,” he adds.

Wake Our Lake’s work is extended to Bengaluru as well, where they’ve worked on Chikkakere lake in Sarjapur by planting saplings.

Saravanan continues to do this work in Bengaluru while all these initiatives are in place and flourishing. “We have people from all walks of life engaged in our initiative, including a lawyer and retired army personnel. The latter is available to take calls all the time and is the one who’ll run you through with all the guidelines if you sign up with us. As and when the need comes, we loop in volunteers and activists with our engineers or soil scientists on board,” Saravanan clarifies.

As of funding for all these initiatives, Saravanan shares that crowdfunding has always come to their rescue.

The first lake revival initiative did not cost the team more than Rs 20,000; of which Rs 15,000 was for the JCB charges, while the remaining was spent on food and other expenses.

“I’d like to especially attribute the villagers for the success of this initiative, who contributed in their capacities. Some people supplied vegetables to feed the volunteers, while others offered to cook for free. There were also doctors in the region, who offered to provide their services, in case of emergency. The people were supportive and had confidence in us since we’d already worked towards rehabilitating the local schools,” he adds.

You may also like: Why This Student Believes Fruit Peels Can Save Bengaluru’s Frothing Bellandur Lake

On a parting note, Saravanan shares that he has faced negative criticism, but would take those as constructive feedback. “I feel that when people are talking behind your back, it means your work is going places. Instead of pulling you down, you should let these pull you up,” he happily adds.

If you wish to be part of the Wake Our Lake initiative, you can reach out to them here.

(With inputs from Ahmed Sheriff)

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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By most accounts, Coimbatore’s very own Sundaram Karivardhan, a racing driver, car designer and business executive, is widely considered as the pioneer of Indian motorsport.

Blazing a trail during the 1970s, 80s and the early 1990s until his untimely death in 1995, it was his relentless passion for the sport that allowed future generations of Indian race car drivers like Narain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok, and Armaan Ebrahim take their first steps with the introduction of the Formula Maruti class in 1988.

Kari, as he was popularly known, was born on 20 June, 1954 into Coimbatore’s famous Lakshmi Mills textile family. Even though he had joined the family business, motorsport was his ultimate passion. As a youngster, he attended the famous Jim Russell racing school in Quebec, Canada, following which he came back to India and participated in races held in Sholavaram, Chennai and Barrackpore, Kolkata.

Mind you, this was a time when motorsport racing in India was in its infancy. Forget racing, even automobiles were uncommon at the time. Cars were still meant for the elite and jeeps were largely used by government officials. This was more than a decade before Maruti Suzuki entered India.

Motorsport racing was an elite endeavour.

Coming back to Kari, he sat behind the Premier Padmini, Datsun 510, Sipani Dolphin and Formula Atlantic during his domestic racing career. However, he wasn’t merely satisfied with driving them, but designing and modifying these vehicles to enhance performance engrossed him too. He had even attempted to develop a Formula 3 car during his final years of racing.

“From racing cars, he moved to building his own Datsun special in 1984, a space frame chassis with a Datsun engine. We raced against each other (my competition number was traditionally 5, Kari’s used to be 65): his Datsun against my Formula Ford in ’82 and later the Formula 2 in ’83 and then we both switched to the Formula Atlantic . . . We were fierce rivals on the track, always had the sport in focus and that cemented strong bonds,” writes Vicky Chandhok, a national champion, and father of Indian race car driver Karun Chandhok, for Evo India.

One of his (Kari) early complete in-house designs was the 300 BHP Formula Monoposto based on the Formula Atlantic Chevron B40 model nicknamed “Black Beauty”. But until the late 80’s, motorsports was only for wealthy drivers. In an effort to make racing more affordable in India and improve grassroots level racing he designed and tested a small single seater, dubbed as India’s Formula Ford, with a Maruti 800 engine, and adapting easily available parts, sometimes made in-house. His second design was a two seater car named McDowell 1000 using a Maruti Gypsy 1.0 liter engine, says this Team BHP tribute.

It was his creation of the Formula Maruti in 1987 that really ignited the field of motorsports in India like never before. Discussing ideas with former national champion Vicky Chandhok, the initial plan was to use a Fiat engine for this affordable domestic single-seater racing car, but they ran into problems with the gearbox.

“Maruti was launching the 800 and I waited a long time outside Chairman R C Bhargava’s office to strike a deal. My persistence paid off. RCB agreed to supply us 35 mechanical kits of engines and gearboxes for Rs. 35,000 . . . Kari went to town designing the space frame and in record time built 28 single-seaters which were launched in the ballroom of the Taj Hotel in Madras in 1987. We roped in various corporates to purchase cars so that talented drivers would get the opportunity to showcase their talent without the worry of finding sponsors. All 28 cars were sponsored by corporates, and all 28 cars were assembled in that ballroom. A motorsport function of that scale has never been held in India since,” Chandok writes for Evo India.

Fast, reliable, and affordable, the Formula Maruti opened the floodgates for others with motorsport racing in their veins including J. Anand, Akbar Ebrahim and R. Gopinath.

All these drivers would go on to become national champions in Formula 3. Akbar Ibrahim won the inaugural race. These races, according to this 2006 Team BHP description, would cost Rs 10,000 per car per weekend and drivers scored points at every event which determined the overall champion.

Subsequently, in the future, the likes of Narain Karthikeyan, Armaan Ebrahim and Karun Chandhok would also cut their teeth at this level.

Without Kari, none of them would have even come close to competing at the international stage. The class was discontinued from the mainstream championship in 2006.

In 1983, he also started Super Speeds, an automobile racing team. For seven years between 1988 and 1995 the team also entered Formula 3 for the annual Madras Grand Prix races. Towards the end of his life, Super Speeds entered into an agreement with JK Tyres to establish their rally team and also provide technical assistance. Following his untimely death, the company was sold to LGB, and today it stands out as a race car construction firm.

Besides track racing, rally car driving was also a source of real interest among motorsport enthusiasts in the country, and yet again Kari made his mark here.

“Kari entered in very few rallies, among them the Karnataka K-1000 in Bangalore. He later launched the JK Rally team in 1992, when JK Tyres wanted to enter into rallying which was previously dominated by MRF Tyres. In the 1990 season, he spotted a young Hari Singh from Chandigarh taking part in the Coimbatore Rally and, seeing his talent, offered him to tune his car, enabling him to win the Indian Championship title 5 times,” says Team BHP.

Also Read: Know the Story Behind Tata Sumo’s Name? 8 Fascinating Facts About Indian Cars!

Basically, there isn’t any vehicle propelled by an engine for which Kari did not have an enduring passion. He even got in to manufacturing power gliders, flipping the 250cc Yezdi motorcycle engine and subsequently using a Rotax engine. He would test these gliders in the Ooty Mountains and Dindigul, among other sites.

The small airstrip he built in Coimbatore later, became known as the Kari Motor Speedway, a purpose build Formula 3 auto racing track.

Unfortunately, it was his passion for aviation which ultimately led to his death. A Pushpak trainer aircraft, that he was flying to acquire his flying licence, crashed on August 24, 1995. His untimely death, at the age of just 41, left a gaping hole in the heart of Indian motorsports. It took a few years for the sport to come back in India.

“Today, we have only two types of drivers at Sriperumbudur. The top drivers and the absolute newcomers. Motor sports is an expensive sport. Consider just tyres for instance. On an average, one needs four tyres for every 15-lap race. Tell me, how many youngsters can afford this expense?” he once said. “We necessarily have to promote the Novice class and make it affordable. For this, we need substantial sponsorship, where cars, tyres and mechanical support come easily for newcomers. Only then will track racing take off,” he went onto add.

Kari was a visionary, battling the licence raj regime and other economic bottlenecks created by the state, to bring motorsports to India. He used his wealth to open pathways for other motorsport enthusiasts. He knew what the sport needed to survive in India.

And you know what, he often put his money where is mouth is and promoted Indian motorsport racing like few did. God knows, we would have had more Indians in Formula 1 by now. Kari would have made it happen. That’s the measure of the man.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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Eco-conscious citizens of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu will now get a push from the government to take up green initiatives in their homes. The Trichy corporation is extending an encouraging hand to those citizens who have green and sustainable homes. This initiative, the corporation is confident, will motivate citizens to harvest rainwater, compost wet garbage, increase greenery in their surroundings and curb down the use of plastic.

And as compensation for undertaking green measures, citizens will be rewarded with health insurance of up to Rs 1 lakh as well as retail vouchers!

The Better India (TBI) got in touch with N Ravichandran, the Corporation Commissioner to find on how the Trichy residents are to benefit from this latest scheme.

“In my years as the Corporation Commissioner, I have realised that, in general, people are genuinely interested in taking up initiatives. What lacks is the awareness about how they can take up simple initiatives and the motivation to take them up.

If the corporation gives rewards to them for having a green home, they are sure to get involved on a much larger scale,” he said.

For Trichy, a city with a population of over 9 lakh, this isn’t the first citizen-driven or green initiative that the authorities have taken up. From having a solar-powered airport to getting ranked the most liveable city in Tamil Nadu, the ancient city has proven its eco-consciousness several times over.

And this time, the residents will have lucrative, personal advantages.

To avail the benefits, citizens have to fulfill four criteria,” Ravichandran tells us, and adds, “The points being, home composting of wet garbage, setting up a roof garden, installing a rainwater harvesting system and using minimal to zero plastic. If they have undertaken all these initiatives, they can apply to avail the benefits. One of our 100 field officers will go to 50 wards and inspect the houses. Once approved, the process of assigning them health insurance will begin.

The Trichy corporation, the official told us, has proposed to award the residents of all zero-waste homes with Rs.1 lakh Mediclaim policy. The premium for this Indian Bank Health Insurance will range from Rs.2,000 to Rs.5,000 and this will be paid by Tiruchirappalli City Corporation through CSR fund for 1 year.

In addition to this, the corporation is also giving away gift vouchers worth Rs. 1.5 lakh to the residents who fulfill all four criteria.

These vouchers can be used at popular supermarkets, sweet shops and shopping malls. A discount of 5-15 per cent will be applied when the vouchers are exchanged in the specific outlets.

“This initiative has begun only last week but we have already shortlisted about 500 homes,” the 52-year-old officer says. “About 15,000 households have already started composting their garbage and our aim is to take this number further to 50,000. There is no income criteria for our scheme and anyone can avail the benefits if they fulfill the conditions. We hope that the rewards encourage more people to get on-board the eco-friendly wagon.”

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The corporation’s rewards to zero-waste homes promise to encourage residents to take up green initiatives. The four-point solution aims to target four different environmental problems that can be solved at home – overflowing landfills, water waste, plastic menace, and deteriorating greenery. All four solutions can be easily implemented and the Trichy corporation hopes that the rewards become the much-needed push for citizens to undertake them.

If you wish to avail the scheme, follow this link. For further details, you can contact the corporation on 0431-2415393 or send an email to commr.trichy@tn.gov.in.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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