A 65-year-old tribal man of Kongadai village in West Bargur Hills in Erode district, who gave land for constructing a special training centre (STC) under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), was gifted with an eco-friendly house recently.
Located 80 km away from Erode, agriculture is the primary source of income for the people in the tribal village that lacked access to education, mobile connectivity and public transportation. Service Unit for Development Activities in Rural (SUDAR), a Sathyamangalam-based NGO, established two special training centres at the village and enrolled rescued child workers.
S.C. Natraj, Director, SUDAR, said that due to space crunch at the centres, the organisation decided to construct another centre when Jadayan of ST Colony contributed 2,300 sq ft land in 2010. “He is fondly called as Kalvi Thandai Jadayan Thatha now”, he said and added that Mr. Jadayan was living in a thatched house all these years that developed leaks a few years ago. Hence, the organisation decided to construct a house for him and approached many philanthropists who whole-heartedly contributed the money for the works.
An eco-friendly house was constructed and named after Birsa Munda, a tribal freedom fighter who spearheaded a tribal religious millenarian movement in the then Bengal Presidency in the late 19th century. “It is a tribute to the freedom fighter and also to Mr. Jadayan whose noble cause led to children in the remote hill areas pursuing education,” he added.
Subbulakshmi Jegadeesan, deputy general secretary, DMK, S. Sivanandan, Secretary, Erode Sengunthar Educational Trust, P.V. Baladandayutham, district president, Tamil Nadu Tribal People Association, Mr. Natraj and a few others took part in the function to hand over the key to Mr. Jadayan.
