DINDIGUL: As her father’s transfers took the family from their native home in Theni, Jothi mother began knitting clothes for her children. She taught her children how to knit using cotton yarn to make lightweight summer garments, dishcloths, baby outfits, and fine lace work. At the time, Jothi did not know it would be her anchor, and eventually, for several other women, in tough times.
“I fell in love with a friend, NS Shaktivel, and we got married, but my parents were averse to the relationship and my in-laws did not accept me,” says SP Jothi (54) of Nilakottai Taluk in Dindigul district. Even though her parents – S Pandian, a civil engineer with the TN electricity board, and P Sironmani, a homemaker – reconciled after her first child was born, the loneliness from their withdrawal had caused her deep pain.
At that moment, she diverted her attention to creativity, including poems, embroidery and tailoring. As her interest grew strong, she sought formal training from Tamil Selvi, a teacher in her area whom she was thoroughly impressed and inspired by. In 1992, she got her first sewing machine and eventually, within a few years, she built a reliable customer base and income.
“At that time, it struck me – Why can’t I transfer this skill to other women in the locality?” Jothi says. “The power of simple vocational training could help break cycles of rural poverty and elevate social standing within families in my panchayat. I feel this empowers women by giving them financial independence and confidence to run micro-enterprises.” In 1997, she began taking free classes with two students in the first batch, and, over the years, 1,200 women have benefitted from them with many running their own garment units.
When undertaking any social work, wanting to help people does not warrant they are willing to accept help. Deepa (32), a housekeeping woman, for instance, had five children and a sticky financial situation in 2019. When Jothi insisted she enrol in the tailoring course, she was hesitant. But after much persuasion, she relented. “Deepa was deployed in a training unit at Ayyampalayam and became a skilled worker, earning good money. She now trains school dropout girls in Dindigul,” Jothi says.
Her work with women’s empowerment opened doors to another problem affecting rural communities: water. In 2004, a NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) officer, KM Sharma, inducted her into a world she knew little about but one that would eventually become a part of her social work. He explained the importance of the watershed project, which aims to harvest rainwater, prevent soil erosion, and recharge groundwater table. After training with experts, Jothi was awarded a watershed project in Ayyampalayam in 2007, covering more than 1,400 hectares, expected to benefit over 800 farmers. She recalls, “Many readily accepted the training and accepted our work on their farmland, and this was primarily due to a drought-like situation in 2007.”
Here too, she was met with staunch reluctance, where some farmers went so far as to claim that a pond had eaten up their cropped cultivable land, she said. Describing the ordeal, Jothi recalls, “In Madurai, some farmers in Pappinaickanpatty near Elumalai objected to the creation of a trench and field bund in the farmland. We dug a shallow trench along a slope contour and piled the excavated soil just below it to form a raised earthen ridge (bund). We told them this combined structure slows rainwater runoff and traps moisture for crops. Despite this, many were hesitant and one farmer destroyed the structure completely after we left. It was very difficult to convince them.”
On the upside, farmers who followed the watershed project saw blooming results. For instance, Amalraj, a farmer-turned-agriculturist, owned a 6-acre barren land, which was rejuvenated to become a cultivable zone after Jothi implemented the techniques she was trained in. Seeing the land flourish, nearby farmers also adopted integrated farming methods by combining crop production with allied activities like livestock, including goats, pigs, etc.
In 2009, Jothi became a member of Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), a UK-based organisation, which drew her attention to another issue — sanitation. Here, she met Ursula Goh, a social activist from East Malaysia, who, visited Ayyampalayam and pointed out the lack of sanitation for women. “She said access to safe, private, and clean female toilets is a core pillar of women’s empowerment,” Jothi recalls. Taking this seriously, she spent Rs 4 lakh out of her pocket to build the first community sanitary complex for women in the district with 10 rooms, years before Swachh Bharat was born.
Jothi’s work for women’s empowerment has run alongside her personal pursuits in literature and academia. Fifteen of the 18 books she has published are collections of poetry and her PhD dissertation in 2005 from Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) was titled ‘Construction of male centred ideology in Sangam period.’ In social, literary, or academic pursuits, her work has closely engaged with questions of society and gender.
