Ms Snegha Latha

If any religion is paramount then it is sewa dharma. It’s said ‘nytyapari sewadharma’ that is, there is nothing above the religion of service. The one who takes his whole life along with service, proves himself, becomes glorious and dedicates his life to national duty. Ms. Latha Ji has devoted her entire life to sewa. Shri Sundar Laxman Ji of Rashtriya Sewa Bharati asserts that after the implementation of ‘Sewa Vrathi’ system in 1992 and Ms. Latha Ji became the first sewa vrathi. She worked continuously for 25 years to irrigate the motherland with her service.

Ms Latha was born into an affluent family in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, but she experienced life very closely and took a vow of service throughout her life. Here is one proof of her passion and longing for social work. Soon after, Ms. Latha Ji was engaged for service work in Chinta, Edappadi and Ramnad village where she lived with minimum facilities. For social welfare, she used to walk across villages and listen to people’s apprehensions and try to resolve them. The austere life of about 25 years created the ideal for other sewa vrathis. Seeing the ideals of her life, many people took the vow of Sewa Vrathi.

From her childhood, she had seen that fishing was the main way of life around her. For their sustenance people used to catch fish but the problem was that there was no way to do savings. The reason behind that was that these people used to immediately spend whatever they had earned. Ms. Latha Ji made efforts for this and inculcated the habit of channelling their savings through banks and post offices. Gradually, the entire rural area got initiated into a habit of saving. Along with that, she also made them aware of the safety of life and motivated them to take life insurance policies. The reason being that the lives of these fishermen are always endangered.

The family in which Ms. Latha Ji was brought up, had intimately experienced that there is no health awareness in these rural areas. Medical facilities are also not available. She understood the difficulties of working families and made their work very easy. Ms. Latha Ji organized women to form self-help groups and started discussing all aspects of health keeping the stressful problems of life in front. Gradually, the goal of changing people’s vision towards health and medicine was achieved.

Education accelerates the pace of life. If a person is educated, then the conscience of differentiating between justice and injustice arises within him, which is the root of life. Ms. Latha Ji also worked to create educational awareness among children. After passing the 12th examination, to easily enrol for higher education, she met sponsors, so as to ensure that her daily expenses and fees are arranged. In addition to this, she worked on the arrangement of roads and water in fishermen’s settlements. There were many villages where there was no system of roads, people used to walk more than 10 kilometres to catch the means. Ms. Latha Ji also got the work of construction and repair of roads accomplished. Health is necessary for a suitable life and good health can only be assured when the whole environment is clean. Keeping in mind the cleanliness and health of the environment, she built toilets in rural areas. Along with this, efforts for women empowerment were made by running multiple schemes. If education is employment oriented, it’s fulfilling. Along with affixing values in life, it also becomes easy to steer the course of life. Ms. Latha Ji gave employment-oriented education first. Its effect is that many students are working as teachers. For the development of society and individual life, it is necessary that both recognize their rights and duties. She made people aware of the government run welfare schemes. Today, the villagers here are eagerly taking benefits and ensuring their development.

When life is flourishing in the midst of contrasts, then it is natural to have differences between family members. Ms. Latha Ji rationally solved many such inconveniencies which emanated in rural areas. Poverty is such a curse that it seems impossible to get rid of it. Where there is poverty, the debt starts growing on its own. Most of the fishermen’s families in Kanyakumari district were its victims. This is the home district of Ms. Latha. First of all, she established a ‘child care centre’ for proper appropriate upbringing. To financially strengthen women, she established self-help centres. Along with the arrangement of coaching classes for the education of the children, programs are organized to enlighten married women. Additionally, weekly bhajan kirtan for all the members of the village is also organized.

Ms. Latha, with her unique effort, has infused a new energy of development not only in Kanyakumari but in all the surrounding areas, recognizing which ‘Sant Eshwer Foundation’ has awarded her the ‘Sant Eshwer Seva Samman’ for the year 2019. The institution desires and aspires that this work should continue to move towards its final goal and they bear witness to it.