A lifetime of selfless service is what 85-year-old Mano Bakthavatsalam has put in for cause of women’s development and upliftment.
Recently, she was awarded The Margarette Golding Award by International Inner Wheel for highly commendable personal service.
“When I graduated I was quite qualified to take a job. But my father, Seshachalam, a prominent citizen of Madras and a businessman, said that I need not work to earn and instead I could take up voluntary work. I followed his words and it has been 60 years now,” says Ms. Bakthavatsalam, who is still active at the Women’s Voluntary Service of Tamil Nadu as its honorary secretary and at the NKT National Girls Higher Secondary School, Triplicane, as its correspondent and secretary.
She is also vice-president of the Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayam and Chennai Vigilance Association and University Women’s Association of Madras, and member of the executive committee of the Family Planning Association of India’s Tamil Nadu branch.
Asked how she has been able to manage social work and home, she says, “My children were growing up and I had a lot of support at home. Now I am only continuing with my prior commitments. I have not accepted any new responsibilities. I oversee the functioning of the school where children from economically backward sections study,” says Ms. Bakthavatsalam.
The Women’s Voluntary Service runs a hostel for working women. Surplus funds from the hostel and donations from members help them run training classes in tailoring, computer and typewriting.
