STRAPPED FOR CASH

Villagers use temple fest fund to tide over crisis

Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com

22.04.2020

The novel coronavirus may not have reached most of the rural areas in the state, but the people in the villages are more severely hit by the lockdown than in the cities. Not only have they lost their livelihood, the restrictions on free movement have also led to increase in prices of essential items.

It is in these trying circumstances that villagers of T Meenakshipuram near Usilampatti decided to split a savings fund meant for conducting temple festivals equally among themselves. An amount of ₹7.5 lakh was distributed among 250 families in the village, located about 50 kms from Madurai city, with every family receiving ₹3,000 each.

It was a decision taken by the village elders to utilize the money in the best possible way after finding the villagers struggling to make both ends meet. Every year they used to collect money to celebrate festivals for Ayyanar and Muthalamman temples. The remaining amount would be given as loans at modest interest rate to the

villagers. The ₹7.5 lakh had accumulated as savings over the years.

Due to the lockdown, the villagers were not able to celebrate the festival at Muthalamman temple in the first week of April.

They initially thought of using the fund to renovate the temples but decided against it saying it could be carried out later also. “We used to celebrate the festival with crackers, drumbeats, mike sets and cultural programmes every year. We could not celebrate this year as police would not give permission. But, on seeing the people suffer, we decided to help them with the money by sharing it equally,” N Palraj, 55, a villager said.

P Muthumari, a farm labourer, said he used to earn ₹250 as wages a day but it had stopped after the lockdown. Moreover, agriculture also had failed this season rendering them without any work. “The ₹1,000 given by the government was enough for a week. The ration rice provided by the government was only fit to feed the cattle. So, the ₹3,000 shared amongst ourselves was of big help in these difficult times,” he said. The village has a population of about 750 people most of whom are construction and farm labourers.