Bangalore, July 2007
Joseph Raj : from the land of Fireworks
Joseph Raj is with Trust for Education & Social Transformation, an NGO, and has been working for some years now in Virudhunagar district of Tamilnadu known for its merchants and called the “Business City”.
Sivakasi, a town famous for its fireworks and match industries as well as its printing presses is about 27 kilometers from Virudhunagar. More importantly, Tiruchuli, the birth-place of the great saint Ramana Maharshi is near Virudhunagar. Nother famous son of the place is Kamarajar, the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
For him, joining the NGO was just not just a vocational or career option; he is genuinely concerned with doing his mite to those who are less advantaged in society. He is quite well clued in about the District.
Tirunelveli District has a population of about 30 lakhs and 65% of it is either engaged in farming or farm labour. Apart from Match factories at Sivakasi, Sattur and Virudhunagar, the other industries are spinning and weaving mills, cement and and asbestos factories, nuts and bolts factory and a few others.
Farming in the District is chiefly monsoon-dependent and some three dams. NRGEA is in its planning stage here and when implemented will cover five blocks. As things stand the funds for NRGEA labour will repose in the panchayat presidents. All there is in existence is a State Government scheme called Anna Marumalarchi Thittam, and a fund of 18 lakhs is allocated to each panchayat. According to this scheme men get 80 to 85 and women 40 to 45 rupees per day. There is no guarantee of work and the selection of the workers is left to the middlemen. NREGA will be preferred to the Thittam when implemented. However, the over 7 lakh beedi-workers, mainly women, will not opt for NRGEA.
He is concerned about migration of women from his istrict. “Because of the low-income here, a fairly large number of young go to the textile and hosiery mills of Tiruppur and Coimbatore. The lure for them is this scheme known as Sumangali. It is supposed to give them at the end of their tenure of three years a sum of Rs 30,000. This promise is more often breached than kept.” And the workers, pejoratively called ‘camp coolies’ return owing to ill-health and harassment. Men who migrate generally go to Mumbai.
As a whole Tirunelveli district has passable health facilities though expensive. Another government scheme, Vazhnthu kattuvom ( loosely translated, ‘We will live and show ‘) hat started a year back has been holding health camps as well as identifying people below the poverty line and engaging them in income generation schemes by channeling funds to them.
Comparatively, Tirunelveli in general and Virudhunagar in particular are on the whole better off with adult literacy at 60% and general facilities. With a ring of pride he says, “We are now known throughout the State as the district that produces large number of rank-holders from our educational institutions.”
Health and hygiene is sub-normal in the rural area of the District and the public toilets built in predominantly higher caste areas are under-utilised because of caste discrimination. There is also constant conflict between dominant castes, mainly the Thevars. The fights are between them, the land-owners and the Dalits (Parayas and Pallars), the small land-holders or farm labourers. To resist the militant landlords the Dalits have formed strong groups.
Till recently there were some efficient cooperatives for helping the match and firework industry but they gradually folded up because of government apathy and beauraucratic interference.
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