NAGAPATTINAM: When S Rajinikanth attended a school function in 2021 at his alma mater, Municipality Middle School on Nellukadai Street in Nagapattinam, he was struck by a sight: children eating their midday meals inside cramped classrooms that were meant for learning. What he saw disturbed him enough to act, perhaps because of how familiar it was.
Rajnikanth, now a 42-year-old vegetable vendor, had dropped out of school at the ripe age of 12 to join work and help his family overcome poverty. “I studied well, but my family situation was very difficult. We had to struggle to come out of poverty. My elder brother also left school after Class 10,” he says.
Not only did Rajinikanth support his family, he was also the embodiment of being the change he wanted to be. Despite being a dropout, he built an Unavu Koodam (dining hall) at his school, giving the children a proper place to eat and the classroom space to remain what they were meant to be.
Rajinikanth, who once had to give up his own education, now spends much of his time supporting government-school children, helping provide the basic facilities he believes no child should have to go without. Whenever he comes across someone in need, he contributes from his own pocket and mobilises support from friends, NGOs, charities, corporate social responsibility initiatives and other means. His journey into social service is not just touching but is a tale of how dropping out of school didn’t stop him from being the hero that gave back to society.
And it all began right there at his family’s grocery shop during the 2004 tsunami. “When the tsunami struck, initially I too ran along with everyone else. But then I wondered, why are we all just running around? Why aren’t we helping?” he recalls.
Turning questions into action, he, along with his family, began distributing Amul milk powder, biscuits and other provisions from their shop. Vegetables were supplied to relief kitchens preparing food for survivors. Eventually, the grocery store was emptied as its entire stock went towards relief work. For 52 days, Rajinikanth opened his terrace to people who had lost their homes and cooked food continuously. He later became involved in helping homeless survivors and assisting with the burial of bodies.
The experience didn’t just stay with him; it transformed the lives around him, including his very own.
Years later, when Cyclone Gaja hit, one belief of Rajinikanth was reinforced. “What matters in a crisis is not what one owns but what one is willing to give,” he says. Using his vegetable business, he distributed around 12 tonnes of vegetables free of cost to villages and relief shelters affected by the cyclone. “I had vegetables. They needed food. So, I gave what I had,” he says.
But it was seeing people from all walks of life reduced to the same basic need that affected him the most. “During the cyclone, I saw even people who had lived with dignity and had enough money being forced to seek food and help. That shook me. I began to wonder, what is all this wealth for? Money may not always stay or help when it matters, but a good heart does. All I wanted to do was help.”
His work has also reached communities facing sudden losses. After a fire destroyed 13 houses in a Kattunayakan settlement, he provided the victims with necessities such as pillows and mats and mobilised contributors to help build sheet-roof houses for the affected families belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community.
Over the years, government schools increasingly became the focus of his service — one that hits home. “I have a habit of visiting schools wherever I go. During one such visit in 2022 to the Government High School in Kalasambadi, I noticed students going out into the open to relieve themselves. It was unsafe, and the school had no toilet facility,” he recalls.
He reached out to contributors and charitable organisations, raised support and built a toilet for the students. Since then, he has arranged funds and helped build more than 13 dining facilities for schoolchildren.
For Rajinikanth, however, providing facilities is only one part of helping children stay in school. “I want to find students who are struggling with education because of poverty. They may be average scorers, but if they are willing to study, I don’t want their family’s financial struggles to stop them,” he says.
In this mission, he has identified more than 50 such students so far, including school and college students. He supports them by paying fees for their education and skill-development courses by mobilising funds from NGOs and corporate social responsibility initiatives.
“If a child wants to study but the family cannot afford it, I want to take responsibility and help them continue their education,” he says.
There is a quiet symmetry to his journey. A boy who was forced to leave school now returns to government school classrooms as a helping hand, not to teach lessons, but to make sure children have a place to eat, a toilet to use and, increasingly, the financial support to remain in school. For Rajinikanth, it is not about how much money he can give. It is about responding when he sees a need.
(Edited by Jotsna Bellani)