TIRUCHY: 75 years young, Padma Shri awardee Marachi Subburaman is brimming with the urge to travel across the country to help the poor. Despite contributing to the uplift of scores in his 48-year-long service of building thousands of houses, toilets and other facilities, this philanthropist thinks there is much more to be done for rural India where, according to Mahatma Gandhi, the soul of our country lies.
Born and raised in the village of Inungur in Karur district, Subburaman has lived through the challenges of rural poverty. “While growing up, my village did not have proper roads, power supply or other basic facilities. Even more, I completed my education through great hardship. A kind- hearted tea shop owner helped me to complete my elementary education and I joined Inungur Primary School after clearing an entrance test. So I know the issues of rural areas,” he says explaining his childhood.
Later he attended National College and graduated in BSc Chemistry from Periyar EVR College in Tiruchy. Following this, he joined Mysore University to study BEd. And, this is when he joined the NGO, Village Reconstruction Organisation (VRO) of Belgian professor Fr Windy that focuses on improving the lives of rural people. “Between 1975 and 1985, I travelled to various villages for VRO to provide cost-effective housing projects for the poor. I along with my colleagues in VRO would select villages and request the participation of those villagers to construct houses for them. This saved us from labour costs, and material costs were reduced by using the materials available on their land for constructing the house,” he says with contentment.
In 1986, Subburaman established an NGO, Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE), in Trichy and started engaging in various social activities, including efforts to promote economic stability among the rural poor.
As part of the NGO, he has travelled to almost all states in India on a monthly basis to study the issues faced by the people living in the country’s rural areas. “Except Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, I have visited all the other states in India and implemented various projects, helping the rural poor,” he says.
One such project was ‘Passing of Gifts’. Under this project, SCOPE would give livestock like cows and goats to people to generate income. Later, the villagers should return their calf to the NGO, so that they can gift it to another family. This project helped over 600 families in Tamil Nadu. However, the NGO discontinued the project later. “After every cycle, I would conduct an assessment of it. It was then I found that some families continued to live in poverty as they were diverting the income generated from the scheme to other purposes, including gifting money to relatives and friends for special occasions. Thus, in 1996, I stopped the gifting project and started focussing only on sanitation projects,” he said.
But the sanitation project was never a cakewalk. Many villagers opposed the idea of constructing toilets inside the houses as they considered it unhygienic. A villager even issued a death threat to Subburaman. But he didn’t back out. Despite getting assaulted, he continued to approach villagers to construct toilets. The project came to life when a pregnant woman came forward to try the new toilet in Kattukulam village in Trichy.
“She admitted the difficulties of not having a toilet in her house, and I built a toilet with Rs 200. This caught the attention of many others, including government officials. Slowly, people started accepting the economically feasible toilet. I even carried the plan to other states,” explains Subburaman.
This good Samaritan caught the attention of both the people and government as he started building toilets for the poor with just Rs 200 to Rs 2000. However, the availability of water posed another hurdle. This motivated Subburaman to create EcoSan toilets. “I started working on EcoSan toilets that convert human waste to manure in 1998. After two years of testing the toilet in my building, I decided to take it to the villagers. But, again I was faced with the challenge of convincing them. Luckily, a woman from Avoor village in Tiruchy came forward to try the idea and I built her a toilet. Later, more people started accepting the idea,” he says.
Over these years, he has built thousands of toilets. He even made changes to EcoSan toilets so that they could function in difficult terrains like that in Himachal Pradesh. “I constructed an EcoSan community toilet in Musiri where users are paid 10 paise for use. There is a card for each user, and we will mark the use in it. At the end of the month, we will pay the amount. However, the system is not challenge-free. Once a government officer asked what we would do if someone entered the toilet just to get money. I admitted that such things can happen. But I am not worried about it as the system at least motivated him to enter a toilet. So, I consider it a step to stop open defecation,” says Subburaman.
Similar to others, family is the support system for Subburaman too. “My family is my biggest strength. I have a son and a daughter. My daughter is a special child (deaf and dumb). I believe that God gave her to me as the almighty knew that I would take good care of her. Both my children are now settled and lead a happy life,” he says with gleaming eyes.
As a token of appreciation for his efforts, the Government of India awarded him Padma Shri in 2021. “I consider my life a service to humanity. My message to the next generation is that don’t get disappointed when you face challenges in your personal and professional life. I am sure the future generation can do more things for society,” added Subburaman.
[Edited by Sneha Joseph]