Tamil Nadu villagers distribute temple fund among themselves amid financial hardship

Located in Theni district of the state, T.Meenakshipuram village houses three temples - and the villagers had recently pooled money from each family to observe their religious festivals, but keeping in mind the lockdown induced financial crunch, the residents decided to use the fund for some respite.

Theni (Tamil Nadu): With daily wage workers and those associated with the unorganised sector bearing the brunt of the more than a month-long nationwide lockdown imposed to contain coronavirus outbreak, residents of a village in Tamil Nadu have decided to distribute temple fund set aside for religious festivities among themselves.

Located in Theni district of the state, T.Meenakshipuram village houses three temples- all belonging to different communities - and the villagers had recently pooled money from each family to observe their traditional religious festivals, but keeping in mind the lockdown induced financial crunch, the residents decided to use the fund for some respite.

“It is our tradition to celebrate festivals associated with all the three temples. But, with the people’s livelihood being severely affected by the lockdown, we decided to give priority to hunger over celebrations,” said Palraj, a resident of the village.

He added, “The temple fund has been distributed equally among all the families in the village.”

Of the 250 families residing in the village, most of them depend either on agriculture as their source of livelihood or are engaged as daily wage workers.

“The Rs. 1,000 provided by the Tamil Nadu government as an allowance is not sufficient and it gets over within a few days, which is why we collectively decided to use the temple fund,” said Balasubramanian, another village resident.