About Elango --- Mr.Elango and the model village Kuthambakkam

     Shri.R.Elango is a native of Kuthambakkam village which 30 Kms away from Chennai city on Chennai - Thiruvallur road near Thirumazhisai. His life as a villager gave him opportunity to realize the social menaces like poverty, untouchability, drunken men, men beating the women, caste based violence, child labour, unemployment, malnutrition and hunger. The proximity to Chennai city had not brought big changes to Kuthambakkam. Like other villages, here also the backwardness due to non availability of infrastructure, poor connectivity and less hygienic condition was existing. After completing the elementary education in Kuthambakkam village he had to walk for 7 Km for his high school education. The social conditions around him made him to grow with social consciousness. After his schooling he did a polytechnic course to get a Chemical Engineering Diploma. After working for two years in petroleum refining he got his Chemical Engineering graduation from Institution of Chemical Engineers, Calcutta. From the age of 18, he started working for finding solutions for the social menaces he faced in his village. He started his social career by running a tuition centre in his village to coach the village children for better education. He promoted one Youth Educational Society to give coaching for the students from Kuthambakkam and surrounding villages. Apart from supporting the students he started working for saving the women in his village from men beating. He was able to see the developments and was seeing the progress.

     At this point he got a job in Central Electro Chemical Research Institute, Karaikudi in Southern Tamilnadu and joined there. The research activity was interesting and he was able get good income also. When returned to his village after a gap he found the slump in all the developmental initiatives he started. This started bothering him after returning to CECRI. This was increasing year by year. He got married in 1986. He helped his wife to become a post graduate in Chemistry even after the marriage. The thirst for going back to Kuthambakkam was growing steadily and this compelled him to find a job for his wife to make her to stand on her own. When she got a job in Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, he quit his job in 1994 and went back to Kuthambakkam. His wife and children were staying in Chennai. For two years time he stayed in the village and tried to reorganize all the developmental programs. This time his experience and maturity had helped him to work prudently with the village community. It became a good chance for him to understand the problems attached with the village developmental process. He was experiencing the troubles from the local politics, corrupts officials, illicit arrack brewers, land grabbers and from other vested interests. With the support from the local volunteers and well wishers he was progressing in his mission. In 1994 when the Tamilnadu Panchayat Act was passed he started working with the groups at various parts of Tamilnadu in creating awareness about the new Panchayat Raj system. In the 1996 Panchayat elections he contested and became the President of the Kuthambakkam village panchayat. He tried to make Kuthambakkam as a role model for the village panchayats. He motivated the members of the village panchayat to work for the total development of Kuthambakkam panchayat. With the participation of the Grama Shaba, Kuthambakkam panchayat prepared the five year plan for the term 1996 to 2001.

     The planning process gave him the opportunity to understand the needs of the community and the outlay. To meet the shortfall he tried to utilize various cost effective techniques and innovative methods in the village development programs. For example the granite waste was used as substitute for the random rubbles collected fro the quarries. By this, the cost of construction for retaining walls and for the basements came down to 60% of the conventional methods. Likewise he started demonstrations on water conservation, electricity savings. Kuthambakkam panchayat had come to lime light in two years. The village development programs had opened him the opportunities to visit various model villages in India like Raligon sidhi in Maharastra, Chitrakoot in Madya Pradesh and Alwar district in Rajasthan. He visited the Gandhian models in Wardha and Gujarat and understood the strength of Gandhian works. He started fighting against corruption and tried to eradicate the illicit liquor and alcoholism in Kuthambakkam. This led him to face the resistance from the corrupt officials and bootleggers. He struggled to face the odds on the lines of Gandhi and was steadily progressing. In three years of time from October 1996, Kuthambakkam panchayat was face lifted to a larger extent. People started realizing the growth and increased their participation. With the people participation as village contribution, Kuthambakkam panchayat mobilized huge support from the state government under the Namakku Namme Thittam. Using this scheme all the inner roads were upgraded to concrete roads. Likewise drains were constructed with proper slope at all the required places. A samathuvapuram was constructed where fifty twin houses were constructed to accommodate 100 families. In every twin house, a scheduled caste family was allocated at one side and the other side was allocated for the upper caste family. This became the real model for equal living among the different castes people. The entire colony with common infrastructures like a full fledged community centre, a work sheds for housing village industries and a child care centre was constructed with various cost effective technologies. This had created opportunities for the Kuthambakkam people to learn these cost effective techniques. At the end of the first term Kuthambakkam Panchayat had reached state of fulfillment in all the basic heeds and the first term ended in 2001 October.

     In 2001 October R.Elango was reelected as President of Kuthambakkam Panchayat. This term he planned to provide safe housing to all the poor families who were living in huts by generations. He had established a registered charitable trust called Trust for Village Self Governance (TVSG) to support the village panchayat in mobilizing resources other than Government grants. The other primary objective of the trust was to network the outstanding panchayat leaders and to create a common platform to share the good practices among them. In 2001, he was given Ashoka Fellowship for innovative leadership. He was invited to UK to study the local governments. He also visited Germany to study the solid waste management. He was invited to USA to study the developmental programs in 2002. After returning from USA, the hut less program was started to construct houses for the poor. Through TVSG he had mobilized recourses and completed the housing program. Now every couple in Kuthambakkam is living in a safe house. The production of building materials through innovative methods created employment opportunities for many families.

Livelihood security

     After reaching status of fulfillment in all the basic needs and housing for all presently Mr.Elango is involved in providing sustainable employment opportunities with in the village to all the needy poor. He has designed a process called "Network Growth Economy Model". He is setting up of various village industries to produce all the essentials by value adding the village produces with in a network of villages. The poor families are organized as Self Help Groups(SHGs) and each SHG is attached with a income generation activity. In 2007 Kuthambakkam will become a hunger free village.