KRISHNAGIRI: For those of us who have heard inspiring tales of great men who used to study below the light of streetlamps at night, the reality of little Raj might sound familiar. Lack of electricity at home forced this boy to find elsewhere to revise his daily lessons. Money was indeed an obstacle, but not strong enough to smother the spirits of this young fellow, who used to run back to school at night, finish his lessons and lie down there itself. Thus began the story of a teacher, who continues to bring laurels to his institutions, making the whole district proud.
Growing up, P Pown Raj (58), who hails from an underprivileged background in Kaveripattinam, used to help his father in running a tea shop after school hours. Later, Raj had no other option but to take a break from studies, and contribute to his family’s efforts to make both ends meet. After eight years, in 1990, Raj secured a diploma in physical education from Coimbatore, a feat which ushered him towards serving the society and bonding with nature.
“After finishing the diploma course, I worked in two private schools. In 1995, I got a government job in the electricity board, and served there for around 2.5 years. However, I could not let go of my passion for teaching, and hence decided to quit the job. Subsequently, in 1998, I joined Government High School at Karayur in Pudukkottai as a physical education teacher, and four years later, I joined the Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School in Kaveripattinam. Here, I have been conducting environmental awareness campaigns for over two decades now,” Raj said.
In 2023, Raj received a cash award of `10 lakh from the Tamil Nadu government in honour of his school campaign for ‘Meendum Manjappai’ scheme, wherein he carried out various awareness programmes against single-use plastics and distributed over 4,000 manjappai to the general public. Additionally, Raj also finds time to conduct campaigns on conservation of wetlands among the students and people who reside within Kaveripattinam.
For Raj, endeavours did not end without proper recognition, as he already has six awards from the state government in his kitty, including the Green Champion Award (2022), Dr Radhakrishnan Award (2014), Green School Award (2015) along with Rs 2 lakh cash prize for nurturing greenery while serving at a school in Balekuli village near Krishnagiri, among others.
This dedicated teacher, who also serves as the block secretary of National Green Corps and the assistant secretary of Bharat Scouts and Guides, was appreciated by former Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, who attended Raj’s 50th blood donation event, in February 2018. As an act of service towards fellow beings, Raj has donated blood 56 times so far, and encourages others to do the same.
Pown Raj, who remains the in-charge of the school vegetable and herbal gardens, adds, “For more than 15 years, our students have prepared one lakh seed balls per year and distributed them to various non-governmental organisations and to the forest department. Our school will soon get a hi-tech roof-top garden too.”
R Vendhan, headmaster of Kaveripattinam government boys’ school, opined, “People think certain activities to prevent environmental-related issues are very easy, but in reality, we don’t follow them at all. For instance, when sanitary workers created awareness among students about garbage collection, they stressed that many of us failed to properly segregate wastes, causing them health issues. Following this, many started to segregate garbage properly. When handing over the waste, people even began to caution workers about broken glass pieces. Also, with the support of Pown Raj, many district-level officials from various departments visit our school and support us in protecting the environment.”
Raj’s wife, T Vasavi, a government high school teacher in Nagarasampatti, remains the constant support throughout his endeavours. Two weeks ago, Raj was promoted to the post of physical director and got transferred to Salem district, where he plans to begin the next phase of his voyage of awareness.