Age is not a bar for Thadakathi to serve the people. This 98-year-old woman was the oldest contestant in the recently concluded local body polls to the Pudukulam a village panchayat in Madurai district and she surprised all with her emphatic win.
A midwife and native healer since her early twenties, Thadakathi polled 72 out of 138 votes polled and defeated the other contestants Vellachamy and Manimaran in ward 4.“I am happy I won. My objective is to do good for the people, which my predecessors failed to do”, says Thadakathi who is quite active.
She had actively campaigned. A polling agent herself, Thadakathi, was found monitoring the counting of votes polled in her ward at Seethalakshmi higher secondary school in Tirunagar on Friday.
She was elated when she was informed about her victory. A mother of five, two sons and three daughters, Thadakathi has been living all alone fighting against odds since her husband Perumal’s death, some four decades ago.
She, according to president-elect B. Muthuramalingam, toils in the fields even at this age, besides being a beneficiary of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
He said he wanted her to contest the polls in the ward reserved for SC. “When there were no hospital facilities in our village in those days, she used to offer care to child-bearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth. In fact, it was Thadakathai paatti who raised me up”, he says.
The paatti went to Tirupparankundram union office along with the other winners to collect the declaration certificate from the election officer. While others got their certificates, she has been asked to come on Sunday. For, collector U. Sagayam wants to honour and congratulate her.