CHENNAI: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s voice rang through the ramparts of the Red Fort on Friday, a 74-year-old woman watching his speech live in a house in Chennai broke into a smile. The PM was talking about adopting one village in every district of the country and converting them into a model village that can inspire all other villages around it and thus transform it. At 68, this is exactly what Radha Parthasarathy began doing.
It all began with her decision to renovate a 700-year-old temple at her husband’s village in Thandalam. She says, “It was under the advise of an astrologer.” But, as she got involved with the construction work and began visiting the village she saw something missing—toilets. “There was no toilet anywhere. If I had to go to a toilet I had to go back to my home.”
It led her to not only to build toilets at the temple, but in the village school, community hall and a few homes. Before long, a trust she had set up built over 260 toilets in the households in the village. The village is an awardee of the Nirmal Puraskar Award for total sanitation given by the President. Today the trust, Annapoorani Public Charitable Trust (APCT), has women’s groups employed in everything from masala-making to instant millet dosas to organic agriculture, organic manure making, paper bags and a wide range of instant foods. The food products are supplied to cities through upmarket stores like Nilgiris and outlets like Sri Krishna Sweets.
Meanwhile, on the infrastructure side, she has set up everything from cement roads, school and health centres and even appointed doctors and teachers, besides starting special coaching classes for students. “It is not easy but it’s not difficult either. Our women are intrinsically very smart. They grasp things taught to them perfectly. You won’t have to explain anything again. You just have to teach them once and they will take over.” she adds. The trust is now on its way to sign an MOU with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) for organic farming. Meanwhile there is a whole host of new schemes and organic products that the septuagenarian is excited about.