TN Government honours swayamsevak for social work

Last month, Shri Chandrasekhar, Collector of Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, gave away Rs 1 lakh to Shri Muthuraj, panchayat president of B. Chettihalli village, in appreciation of elimination of untouchability in his panchayat under a state government scheme to promote social cohesion. Till 1981, this village had the bad name for ill-treating harijans. With an RSS pracharak, Shri Ramakrishnan, started a shakha in Jogipatti falling under the panchayat that year and things began to change for the better. Shakha naturally attracted youth from all communities. The village youth who became swayamsevaks were imbibed with a sense of social justice as a path to Hindu consolidation. They gave the necessary pep to the harijan families. As a result, harijans began walking along the village streets wearing footwear. They could now ride bicycles inside the village limits, something impossible earlier. Jogipatti blazed the trail for eradication of untouchability in surrounding villages over a period. Muthuraj, a second-year trained swayamsevak, was among the first batch of village youth to attend the shakha. Later, he was elected for the post of panchayat president as an independent candidate. This gave a fillip to the efforts of the Sangh workers striving for samajik samarasata in the neighbourhood. Soon the Chaaki Amman temple festival became an occasion for all castes to express solidarity, a sea change from the conflict-ridden affair that it used to be. All this led the government to select the village for the award.