COIMBATORE: In the wee hours of a July morning, chilly winds from the reserve forests of Anaimalai do not deter S Thangasamy. He starts off at 6.15 am and walks towards the bus stop at Sangampalayam, where he has been living since retirement. He boards a bus to Sekkalmudi, an interior village replete with tea estates, about 13 km from Valparai Town.
Once he gets down at Sekkalmudi, he starts walking towards the Balakinar tribal settlement, where as many as 34 families of Kadar tribes reside. It is a long trek of 7 km through the forest to reach the settlement, which is off limits for vehicles. He reaches there by noon, and immediately gets on with his mission: to make tribals aware of their rights.
Unlike his retired colleagues who prefer a laid-back retirement life, the 68-year-old man from the Nedudukundru tribal village is quite a busy man. He resides near Pollachi, but you can spot him around the settlements at Anaimalai and Valparai, educating villagers about their rights or paying heed to the needs of students from the hamlet.
In his childhood, Thangasamy, a member of the Kadar tribe in Anaimalai Tribal Reserve (ATR), often accompanied his father — a honey gatherer — to eke out a livelihood. When he was 15 years old, his father slipped from a tree while gathering honey and fractured his leg. After spending a night in the dense forest, with no assistance, he solely lifted his father on the shoulder and trekked back nearly 10 km to his village.
“After rescuing my father, I got the confidence to accomplish anything in life,” he says. Despite many vicissitudes, he became the only person to finish Class 10 from his village, in 1973. Following school, he registered in the government employment office, resulting in an office boy’s job in 1983. Later, he attempted several department exams and ascended the ladder of triumph in his career.
Life went on, but he couldn’t put his community behind him. After retiring as a senior technician at the Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore, he began a new journey to transform the lives of tribals, whose conditions have changed little since his childhood. “After my retirement, I had decided to devote my remaining days to the tribal community who are still struggling for not just their livelihood but also for their fundamental rights,” he said.
Today, Thangasamy is the guiding lamp of around 18 villages in the Annamalai and Valparai hills. He educates the tribals about their rights and helps them to apply for land pattas by filling out forms. Likewise, he also aids people in getting government certificates like community, Aadhar and residential certificates. With his constant efforts, about two years ago, thousands of tribal families in the area recieved pattas for 1.5 cents of land each.
Thangasamy’s service is not limited to patta lands alone. He supports the students of the hamlet to study better and aids them intellectually and financially. One can often find him dropping children to school in his two-wheeler. Similarly, he encourages students to apply for government scholarships to get monetary allowance. Under his guidance, many tribal children who otherwise would have been lost in the turbulence of poverty receive quality education.
Even after long years of service in the government sector, Thangasamy does not own a single piece of land other than his ancestral property at the Nedukundru tribal settlement. However, he prioritises people over his personal life and spends about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 from his monthly pension to help people from his community.
S Thanaraj, a tribal rights activist further points out that, Thangasamy may be around 68-year-old on paper, but his actual age is close to 73. “At this age, he walks about five kilometres daily to reach these settlements. Despite his efforts to empower the people, he further helps the tribals to access medical treatment by taking them to Government Hospitals when they are in need.”