A hero gets a job – Hemanathan

14th February 2018

A couple of weeks back, we got great news from Hemanathan, one of our beneficiaries from Chinnalampatti. He is completing his Polytechnic Diploma and has got an internship with Brakes India, a TVS group company.

Hemanathan comes from a weavers’ family. There are several handloom weaving clusters in Chinnalampatti and Dindigul. Many of these clusters have organised themselves into societies and Cooptex has done an amazing job of uplifting these clusters. Mr. Venkatesh Narasimhan, the MD of Cooptex has been instrumental in turning around the fortunes of many weavers’ families and Hemanathan’s is one of them.

The reality is that handloom weaving is hugely labor intensive and not as remunerative, but its an art form and our cultural heritage. So efforts like Mr. Venkatesh Narasimhan’s are essential to keep this heritage alive. With Mr. Narasimhan’s help, ShikshaDaan had the opportunity to meet with some of the weavers’ families in Chinnalampatti and Dindigul in July 2016 and we have been supporting the education of 15 scholars from these families since then. Hemanathan is one of them.

While some of us may feel sad that Hemanathan has chosen a different career rather than weaving as a career, its important for the weavers’ families that the next generation is able to earn well and return to weaving only after creating some financial security.

The appointment letter from Brakes India is enclosed after masking personally identifiable information. ShikshaDaan congratulates Hemanathan and wishes him the very best for a bright future.