THOOTHUKUDI: As the first ray of dawn peers into the room, students are busy going through question papers at the VAO office inThirunaveerudayarpuram village near Nazareth, Thoothukudi. Their teacher, VAO P Sivaraman, stands at the door, while his pupils are engaged with the model exam for government jobs, hoping for a better future. Sivaraman has become a guiding light for the youngsters of Srivaikuntam and Karungulam, villages rife with caste sentimentality and the violence associated with it. Amid such an enviroment, the teacher has managed to get many of his pupils into government jobs, securing many futures.
The 38-year-old Karungulam native took up the role of VAO at Vellur near Thoothukudi in 2015, and soon enough, Sivaraman was greeted with a double murder case. Before he could catch his breath from having witnessed such brutality, he stumbled upon another truth – the youngsters from the region had been the cause behind the bloodbath. “It was this brutal incident that made it clear to me that the local youth, predominantly school dropouts and unemployed, have a big hand in anti-social activities and gang wars. This realisation pushed me into starting free coaching classes for them at my office,” the VAO explains.
At first, not many of them were very enthusiastic to join the classes. Students wore caste paraphernalia such as bands around their wrists and engaged in gang wars in the area. With much difficulty, Sivaraman managed to gather 17 students from the region and kick-started the coaching classes. After months of rigorous training, all 17 managed to pass the written exam and joined the Tamil Nadu police. The news of this achievement made all the change. Since then, student count has swelled, which pushed the VAO to rent halls and houses in the region to accommodate them.
“I take classes under certain conditions. The students must not wear any caste paraphernalia, should not put their faces on any flex boards and no movies until exams are over. Also, while attending classes, one must not use mobile phones. Coaching begins at 5 pm after office hours and students have to attend a test from 9 pm to 10 pm. All of them must stay at the office through the night and they will have to take another test from 4 am to 7 am,” says Sivaraman.
Subsequently, after he got transferred, he immediately painted an office wall black, so that he could use it as a board to teach students. Starting in Vellur, he was posted as VAO in Kalvoi, Pudukudi, and Vada Vallanadu, and also worked as in-charge for Tholappanpannai, Adichanallur, Padmanabamangalam, all parts of the caste-conflict belt in Srivaikuntam taluk. Due to the high frequency of caste violence and murders, VAOs do not prefer to work here and the villages remain unfilled during the counselling. But for Sivaraman, the locale presented him with opportunities to change the lives of the local youth.
One of his students, Velmurugan of Kalvoi, who is now a police officer, told TNIE, “VAO Sivaraman was a game changer for many youngsters in my village. Wayward individuals who had gone astray, under his guidance, are now working in government jobs.” Muthu Palavesam (24), son of a farmer from Padmanabamangalam, now an army man, said, “Sir (VAO) is everything to me. If he hadn’t offered those free classes, I would not have joined the Indian Army. I would have led my life as a load man or by looking after goats and cows.”
Born into a family with 10 children, Sivaraman is the only one who passed Class 12 among his siblings. After completing his schooling in 2003, he worked as a load man in Tirunelveli for seven years. In 2010, after finishing a BBA course through distance mode, he began preparing for the railways exam and got the job in 2013. Subsequently, he cleared TNPSC group 4 in 2014 and joined as a junior assistant at Thoothukudi Additional District Court. After clearing the VAO exam in 2015, he also passed group 2 (non-interview post) but he dropped the offer since he was posted to Chennai. “Since I prepared for these exams all on my own without attending coaching centres, I take classes for free, for the welfare of students,” he says.
Sivaraman adds that coaching classes for competitive exams should be encouraged in rural pockets of Tamil Nadu, so that the students there are motivated towards a better future, and caste sentiments and caste violence could be completely weeded out.
(Edited by Sneha Joseph)