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Posted on: Nov 30, '08

Woman of Convictions!!!

Woman of Convictions!

What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice! I have always loved this little thought. Little girls bring to our minds, pink frilly frocks, doe eyes, Cinderella shoes and Snow White skin! Some of us probably think of gagara-cholis, pattu pavadais (silk skirts) and glass bangles! Don’t we, when we look at their beautiful and innocent faces, feel protective towards them; feel like cuddling them in our secure arms and warding off any evil that may befall them? Can we ever imagine cruelty to those cherubic delights? We wouldn’t so much as hurt a toe-nail of theirs;---------------- yet, brutality at its height was exercised on them; inhumanity at its worst was shown to them; hard to visualize ruthlessness was inflicted upon them, that made even homicide a milder terminology!

In the late 80s, female infanticide was the worst social evil, that bewitched Usilampatti Taluk, consisting of 309 villages. Usilampatti is situated near Madurai in Tamil Nadu; one of the small, non-descript, Geographical locations. Killing of the girl child grew into an out-of-control menace. Neither the Government nor the people were able to do anything about it, except twiddle their thumbs and watch it happen, in helpless horror! India Today covered it, but it merely helped in announcing the practice to the world; not much was done about it!!!

That is when this lady stepped in----Valli, in whom the entire womanhood should take pride in! She took over as the Jt. Secretary of the Indian Council for Child Welfare, Tamilndu, Madurai District in 1986. And ever since it was a tireless, unceasing journey for her--------a journey in which she encountered hurdles and hiccoughs, the kind that were new and strange to her elite upbringing. But she’s one tough woman; tough, determined, tolerant, positive and bold! And in ten years time, ten long years of toil and turmoil, she was able to bring down the rate of female infanticide from 300 all the way down to read NIL!!! Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

But that which took me twenty seconds to type and you fifteen seconds to read, wasn’t so easy for her. She recounts her experiences vividly: ‘I was literally pushed out of their huts; once they realized what we were there for, they didn’t allow us into their villages; and I’ve never heard such abusive language ever in my life, not to mention being at the receiving end of it!’

And so it went on, a seemingly impossible task; she was forever commuting between Usilampatti and Madurai, engaged in meetings with the then collector and his team. Slowly, but surely, through sheer perseverance, she made inroads into the village. She used the available funds to provide the village homes with cows and goats; a means of income to support the girl child; this brought around a few of them to consider ‘not killing’ the new born! That first entry made, she organized awareness programmes for pregnant women and new mothers.

Aid was offered to mothers who gave birth to a second girl child. Furthermore, to ensure total eradication of this practice, a ‘cradle scheme’ was also created. The Jayalalitha cradle scheme was operational only in the Salem and Dharmapuri Districts; and even there, it was turning out to be a failiure. The Government was unwilling to take on Usilampatti Taluk, as it was a politically sensitive area.

In furtherance of the cradle scheme, support systems were established for girls and women; the girl child’s education was taken care of to a minimum of 10th std, and in some cases, to the 12th std. A few bright girls who were keen on higher studies were supported too.

Training Programmes were organized too; special faculty from Chennai worked on need-based modules and a team of specialists trained the girls and women; the training was all comprehensive; sensitization to the girl child’s place in the society, confidence building, personality development and social awareness were some of the modules included. This definitely showed a great attitudinal difference.

The women were also given skill-development training in embroidery, tailoring and other areas of needle-craft. Recently a paper industry has been installed too, that’s inclusive of book binding and paper making.

Female infanticide is now a history in Usilampatti Taluk; and Valli has become a legendary icon of a battle fought and won; won hands down! It is no mean feat to take up such a social cause

and struggle against an impossible situation. Dear sistahood, let’s be proud of her; one of our own, who’s made us hold our heads in high esteem!

And why am I sharing this with all of you now? I was in Madurai last week, and the Rotary West of Madurai bestowed its most prestigious and highest award, ‘For the Sake of Honour Award’ on her, for her astounding achievements. As a long time family friend, I was invited too and had the honour of participating in the event; I was so happy that I didn’t even mind cutting it close to catch my Bangalore bound train!!! Valli has been devoured by the media; she has already been featured in the newspapers and has also been televised. Our fropper zone couldn’t compete with the media, but nevertheless, we’re no ordinary folks, are we? I felt like sharing this with all of you as I was sure you’d join hands with me in applauding this stupendous woman; a woman of substance; a woman in a class of her own!

Who’s Valli?

1. Born in June 1950 into a progressive, but traditional family, she grew up as a student of Churk Park School, Chennai.
2. Her hobbies included cricket, throw ball and rowing; she represented her school and always came back with awards. She was crazy about Nawab-of Pataudi and his cricket and never missed the Pavilion seats whenever he played in Chennai.
3. She was married at the age of 17 to Mr. Annamalai, one of Madurai’s leading businessmen. Thereafter known popularly as Mrs. Valli Annamalai, she has mothered two daughters and a son.
4. She became the Jt. Secretary of the Indian Council for Child Welfare, Madurai District in 1986.
5. She heads the Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Programme of ICCW, TN in the coastal areas of Kanyakumari.
6. She is on the committee of ‘Save the Children Club’ affiliated to Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, which conducts free cardiac surgeries for poor children through donations.
7. Multi tasking keeps her busy today (women ARE good at multi tasking) and she catches up with her reading on spiritualism and philosophy, when she finds a bit of solitude!!!

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neha_sh2000 said:

...way to go sistuh!!.....i mean Valli....yeah...v do need more women like her....tks chitra for bringing her to our notice.....and in some states they r importing women...and this time even from what they consider lower castes as they have already skewed the M:F ratio...recently i heard that in MP they have introduced a scheme called Laadli Beti...where for the 2 gals of each family there is a kind of cash incentive deposits at many stages of her life....atleast till v have educated our masses something must b done.....

December 08, '08

sanjeev069 said:
I'm very much thankful to the person who is taking such a big responsibility to introducing such a gr8 personality of our nation.It's you mam I salute you.

My shat-shat PRANAM to sister, mother or we can say godess of little flower's mam VALLI who is the proud for our nation

December 07, '08

malaysian1934 said:
Thank you for giving me such valued informations. My pranam-salute to sister valli

December 05, '08

SweetAdonis said:
Multitasking.. Only women can.. Even MS Windows fail at one point.

..and no man can..

agree in toto..

December 05, '08

SweetAdonis said:
Very nice..

We need more Vallis to make India proud...

December 05, '08

leanranger38 said:
it does take women of conviction to spread the good news fearlessly in spite of other obstacles.
keep going Valli n the author.

December 04, '08

BindasCorner said:
Nice one CJ,'but where does the buck stops?

December 03, '08

harsh7901 said:
was not aware of this... me had different impression about south... seriously...
valli has indeed done a great job... n she looks great too...
informative write-up...thnx for sharing cj..

December 02, '08

impeccabledude said:
I thought that south was quite okay with girl child. but it seems like south is no different from north. In haryana, rajasthan, UP , MP & bihar killing female infants and foetus is quite common.
I have never heard of the Lady before, but I must say that she deserve a room in my heart and all high regards.
I wish i could also do something of this sort.

December 02, '08

eternalessencefoever said:

TO VALLI!

Great post Chitra...her dedication n passion has given the kind of respect n value that they deserve.
--This was a truly inspirational post..
ty for sharing

December 02, '08

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