"TRACE"-ing Our Future (Day -2)

We also got an opportunity to go LIVE on All India Radio (Trichy) FM Rainbow on the second day, where we interacted with RJ Bharathi and few callers from in and around Trichy. There were a few sodappal spots and comic sessions too, thanks to those callers and RJ! We went on to survey the Ramnad Combined Water Supply Scheme (CWSS) (Maaperum Koottu Kudineer Thittam, in Tamil). A TWAD Engineer was there with us to describe the project, that was devised to supply drinking water drawn from banks of Kaveri, to three districts that were water-scarce. There are no beneficiaries in Trichirappalli for this scheme.

We walked a stretch of ~1340m to and fro, observed the giant pipes that carried water from the supply site to the storage site, also enjoyed the phenomenon of passing clouds drifted by the breeze (and made popular by the Tamil flick Aayirathil Oruvan). The engineer impressed upon us about the rapidity with which the project was completed well before time.

We then rode along the road to Karur and visited an NGO at Allur village. It is called SEVAI (Society for Education Village Action and Improvement), founded by Mr. Govindaraju in 1975. The beneficiaries include women, children, differently abled persons and prison inmates to name a few. They teach economic activities, healthy lifestyle, support SHGs by helping them obtain loans and rehabilitate FSW,WIP,MSM and IDUs. A mock interaction with the SHG members who were part of HLF(Habitation Level Federations) and PLF(Panchayat Level Federations) was a never-before-experience and a peek into our future face-to-face with the public. The women were united in their sense of pride about Trichy being the best in India, their SHG activities, their children, their husband and family support to actively participate in SH groups and about SEVAI as a whole. Yet when it came to discussing about Government they had different ideas, few supporting and many complaining. The areas of their major concern were education, employment, inflation, rainfall and real estates encroaching into agricultural lands.

This was followed by a (paasathil thoindha) lunch and when we left the place, we needed no efforts to fall sleep, but Mukkombu saw to it that we didn't go to slumber. It's a lovely place to spend a cloudy, quiet evening (unless you are deaf to monkey chatter!) We skipped the stage of getting our feet wet, but did not miss out on icecreams (hey, that's no childish thing, we just helped out a cottage industry!)

Then we went en route Musiri, Thottiyam blocks to reach Thaathaiyengarpettai (Tha.pettai in Tamil and T-Pet in English) block, Aaraichi Panchayat where a few weeks before, Periyar Samathuvapuram had been inaugurated. It provided 100 dwelling units in an approx. area of 13 acres. Each house was provided with separate setups for RWH, Biogas compost pits and closed toilets. The beneficiaries were identified after several stages of scrutiny by the Village President, BDO, VAO, RI and Tehsildar; they had to include 40% reserved category, in order to really live up to the term 'samathuva'puram. Village President Mrs. Vijaya, a graduate, has been elected again for the second term from Aaraichi, this time from a non-woman-reservation-panchayat. She being an independent candidate, is an example of women empowerment with no political background.

We saw and heard about many unique facts and stories about peoples and places.
* 95% of Maternal deaths are preventable.
* Thiruverumbur and Thirueengoimalai are sites named after ant and bee respectively, the insect forms that worshipped Lord Siva.
* Gunaseelam was treating lunacy at its Prasanna Venkatachalapathy (Vishnu) Temple till before 2 years.
* Amateur tailors are given 5.50 per nighty stitched. It is 6.50 for designed nighties. Each one earns upto 25 per day, we were informed.
* Rent details of the costliest hotels and chatrams in Trichy
* Oyamari, the place where corpses were burnt 24 X 7, till before it was recently converted into an electric crematorium to control pollution and bad smell in the surroundings.
* Pachamalai holds a monthly sandhai to sell its rare herbal products (mooligai) that are raw materials for Siddha and other natural medicines; siddhars are speculated to live in this area.
* The people of these hills are believed to be early settlers from ancient Cheranadu (present Kerala).

'TRACE - Exposure visit' and discussions with JD-EO Mr. Suresh Kumar helped me to understand how creativity and novelty can be infused into the regular governmental setup; how barefoot scientists can help in 'sustainable development'.