MOTIVE
FORCE OF MULLAKKODI VILLAGE
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| Mallika, Puthiyaveettil, Mullakkodi Village, Mayyil Panchayat, Kannur. |
Can one woman of 28, by her work, bring qualitative change in the life of her village and be an inspiration for many others, far and wide? Such is the story of Mallika, Puthiyaveettil, Mullakkodi Village, Mayyil Panchayat, Kannur.
The Continuing Literacy Centre (CLC) of Mullakkodi, where Mallika is a ‘Prerak’, has been awarded Rs. 1 lakh for being the best CLC among the 890 Panchayats of Kerala.
She started her activities by organising training in swimming for boys and girls of her village, which is by the side of Valapattanam River. When the monsoons come, the area usually gets inundated, leading to incidents of drowning. The realization that proficiency in swimming is necessary for survival prompted her to float the idea of ‘swimming-literacy’ for the youngsters of the village.
The first batch of 102 boys and 20 girls were given training for 3 months. Then the next batch of 100 participants was given training.
Seeing the motivation and hard work of Mallika, the Literacy Mission included Swimming in its Continuing Literacy Programme.
Now she is training the girls of Mullakkodi in cycling. There are 70 girls in the first batch. The next in her agenda is training girls in Karate. 65 persons have already registered for the programme.
Her activities do not end here. Training in stitching to women, tuition for students, training to prepare aspirants for PSC exams, repairing home appliances… the list goes on. All these services are provided free of charge.
Another of her achievements is the mobile library. Although many women had the desire to read books, they did not like the hassle of going to a library and borrowing books. And many were whiling away their time in front of the TV. So Mallika hit upon the idea of taking books to these women thrice a week.
She is the 2nd of the 7 siblings of Narayanan and Janaki. She has a Bachelors Degree in History and has undergone training in computer. Her brother, who is a conducted in a private bus, is the breadwinner of the family.
Mallika gets a paltry Rs.300 for working as a ‘Prerak’. And another Rs.200 from running the library. But in her effort to bring good to her locality, she is forgetting her shortcomings.
Courtesy: Kerala Kaumudi
Contributed by: Administrator
