Commemorating 25 years of their work in rural development, the book, A Silent Revolution - The Journey of the Srinivasan Services Trust , was released on Wednesday.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin unveiled the book and Venu Srinivasan, chairman, TVS Motor Company; managing trustee, Srinivasan Services Trust, presented the first copy of the book to him. Authored by Snigdha Parupudi, the book traces the journey of the Trust, which is the social arm of Sundaram-Clayton Limited and TVS Motor Company, and how they have facilitated development by improving the lives of rural communities.
“We have only played a role of a catalyst. It is the thousands of people across the villages we work with who have spearheaded this revolution of change and carried it forward. We have stood by, and encouraged them,” said Mr. Srinivasan, reflecting on their journey.
The book details the trust’s work towards enhancing the socio-economic status of the underprivileged in rural India and the interventions of the trust across six key areas.
Mr. Srinivasan said creating and working towards self-empowered societies is the way to go. “To build societies, we need to empower women. With this comes the empowerment of the community at large, and then we move on to health infrastructure, education and other aspects that need attention,” he explained.
Their journey, Mr. Srinivasan said, had been one filled with discovery, learning and trust.
“There is so much to learn in terms of native, basic wisdom from the rural communities we work with. A big, lasting change requires patience and the importance of being patient is something we have imbibed over the years as well,” he said.
Working with nearly 2,500 villages in Tamil Nadu and a few parts of Karnataka at present, SST emphasised equitable, participatory and sustainable development. “We want to reach out to more backward areas and underprivileged communities in Tamil Nadu in the coming years. As we keep expanding our footprint, we hope that our work will inspire other business groups to explore our programme of scalable, sustainable development for those who need it the most,” Mr. Srinivasan said.
