KADAPA: In his own way, a 42-year-old artist from Kadapa district has been trying to educate people on the consequences of falling sex ratio through his paintings. Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ scheme, which seeks to address gender imbalance, Thupakula Ramanjaneya Reddy creates awareness among people of the adverse impact on future generations if the female population decreases. The portraits of famous personalities he paints have a logo ‘Save Girls’, emphasising the importance of women in society.
Born and brought up in a below-middle-class family, Ramanjaneya Reddy originally hailed from Chinnadudyala of Muddanur mandal. Infected with polio during his childhood, Ramanjaneyu discontinued his studies and worked as a construction labour to support his family.
His interest for art has made him begin painting portraits since 1996. After the Nirbhaya incident, Reddy decided to create an awareness among the people with his art and presented the paintings to nearly 400 famous personalities, including former President Pranab Mukherjee, former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister N Gadkari, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, former Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, former CM N Chandrababu Naidu and others.
Meanwhile, Reddy’s wife Nagalakshmi, who discontinued her studies in Intermediate, has pursued higher studies with his support and completed her graduation in 2006 and post-graduation in 2008.
Presently, she has been rendering her services as Tahsildar in Ambedkar Konaseema district.