80-plus & leading from the front in Covid-19 fight

Team TOI

22.04.2020

Even as many young, affluent and employed individuals are pennypinching for a rainy day, three senior citizens in TN, all aged above 80 years, have shown why fighting coronavirus is everyone’s battle, and how each of us can contribute to it in our own little ways.

S A Palaniammal, 82, a retired school teacher in Coimbatore, has donated ₹1lakh from a trust run with her pension corpus and that of her late husband’s to buy personal protective equipment for frontline workers battling Covid-19 in Coimbatore, while A Shanmugam, 85, of Erode, has distributed ‘kabasura kudineesr’, a herbal concoction, to more than 9,000 people, and 86-year-old Ramamoorthy of Dindigul has handed over his entire monthly pension of ₹26,378 to the CM’s relief fund.

Palaniammal, who retired in 1996 after teaching Science and English at a government school in Sulur near Coimbatore for 37 years, and her son Senthilnathan, a doctor, manage the ‘Arundhavapasu SAS Trust’. “We use the interest amount from the trust fund to support our philanthropic work,” the octogenarian said.

“Every August, we give ₹10,000 to 60 underprivileged government students who have scored well in Class XII. This year, too, we would help students from Coimbatore and Pollachi,” she said.

After the pandemic broke out, she decided to donate money to the CM’s fund to buy protective gear for frontline workers. “It’s sad to see people stepping out even when a lockdown is in place. If people follow lockdown guidelines and stay at home, the spread can be controlled,” she said.

While Palaniammal wants to protect the Covid-19 warriors from the outside, social worker A Shanmugam of Erode, is worried about the inner wellbeing of people. He has distributed more than 9,000 packets of ‘kabasura kudineer’ in the district. Most poor people don’t know about it. Even if they do, they don’t have the money, he said.

ERODE’S BAPU: A Shanmugam, 85, packs ‘kabasura kudineer’

Man hands over pension to CM fund

The man who travels 12km every day to hand it over to the poor said, “I was procuring them from medical stores. Each herbal packet cost me₹140.”

But after health officials, who heard about his service, advised him to get it from the government siddha hospitals and clinics, the social worker has been getting them in bulk and repacking them into smaller ones of 6g each.

On Tuesday in Dindigul, meanwhile, 86-year-old retired teacher Ramamoorthy walked 5km from his residence in Nagal Nagar to the Dindigul collectorate to hand over his pension of 26,378 to the CM’s fund. His contribution followed many others, including children, who donated to the CM’s relief fund for the Covid-19 crisis in the district.

Dindigul has received funds to the tune of 1.29 crore for the CM’s relief fund so far. Collector M Vijayalakshmi said Ramamoorthy’s gesture showed his commitment to the wellbeing of society even at this age.