While the only secondary school in Anthoniyarapuram village in Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu shut down due to paucity of funds, villagers resorted to an unusual solution of selling sweet toddy to help fund the school for their children’s future.
Since Palmyra trees flourish more in Anthoniyarpuram village of Thoothukudi, most of the villagers make their living by selling products from Palmyra trees. There are reportedly about 500 families in this village, with men working there to extract sweet toddy from palm trees, apparently making products associated with it. The children of Anthoniyarpuram village attend RC Primary School, which is the only school in the village.
A decade ago, the school was upgraded to a secondary school for students of classes 6, 7 and 8. Meanwhile, the middle school was launched as a self-financing institution, while the primary school was aided and received teachers’ salaries. State government. However, most of the families here are financially backward to pay school fees.
Subsequently, a committee was formed by the villagers to manage the functioning of the school as the issue of funding the middle school came up and they did not want to leave the upgraded school.
The villagers decided to set aside the money received from selling pathani (sweet toddy) throughout the year to maintain the school and teachers’ salaries for the past four years. According to the latest figures, about 100 children of the village are in middle school. The villagers are seeking help from the Tamil Nadu government and are now demanding payment of school teachers’ salaries. The Samiti obtains Pathanir (sweet toddy) from Palmyra tappers of the village and sells them to the public at a low profit.
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