Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram: Stalin opens 235th ‘equality village’ near Sivaganga

The scheme was originally named as ‘Periyar Ninaivu Samathuvapuram’ after Tamil social reformer Periyar EV Ramasamy Naicker. The Rs 3.5 crore Sivaganga village inaugurated on Wednesday is the 235th such facility in the state and ninth in the district. The project was announced in 2010-11 but after the DMK defeat in 2011 Assembly polls, the AIADMK government did not pursue their rival’s signature project.

Stalin inaugurated the village along with a beneficiary family and also unveiled a statue of Periyar. Last April, while inaugurating a similar village in Villupuram, he had said the “entire country should emerge as an equality village”.

The idea of Samathuvapuram was mooted to promote spatial equality, social harmony and social capital of the weakened, marginalised and rural sections at a time when the residential areas in Tamil Nadu were largely known as Cheries (Dalits), Nagars (caste Hindus) and Agrahaharams (Brahmins). Even the government-sponsored housing schemes had failed to erase segregation except for the fact that Cheries became colonies.

In order to eradicate untouchability and caste discrimination, “Tamil Nadu: Samathuvapuram: Towards Spatial Equality,” a 2002 study by K Jothi Sivagnanam and M Sivaraj of the University of Madras says, “it was Periyar himself who introduced the concept of Samathuvapuram during the early 20th century…Samathuvapuram was an idea, along with several other action plans like inter-caste marriages, inter-dining and common dwelling, to fight caste discrimination.”

சிவகங்கை மாவட்டத்தில் பெரியார் நினைவு சமத்துவபுரத்தைத் திறந்து வைத்து அரசு நலத்திட்ட உதவிகளை வழங்கினேன்.

‘வீரமங்கை வேலுநாச்சியார்’ பெயரில் பெண் காவலர் பயிற்சிக் கல்லூரி அமைக்கவேண்டும் என விழா மேடையில் வைக்கப்பட்ட கோரிக்கை தொடர்பாக நாளையே அதிகாரிகளுடன் கலந்துபேசுவேன். pic.twitter.com/zQRSGz4uVo

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) June 8, 2022

When it was introduced in 1997 as an egalitarian community, it had a system in which the District Collector obtained an undertaking from each family that they will not install the statues of religious or community leaders; won’t sell or pledge the houses for a period of 15 years; will use a common burial ground, besides other conditions.

The first Samathuvapuram was established at Melakottai near Madurai with 100 houses, built at a cost of Rs 35,000 each. “The houses were constructed on 5-cent plots with a built-in area of 259 sq ft. The beneficiaries were selected on the basis of income criteria from the eight adjacent villages of Melakottai. Of the 100 beneficiaries, 40 houses were allotted to Adi-Dravidars, 25 to backward classes, 25 to most backward classes and 10 to people of other communities. Again, the allotments (including land documents) were done in the name of the female member of the household…,” said the study, detailing other facilities such as town buses from the city with stopover, post office, telephone facility, a dairy farm, milch cows for 30 inhabitants and a self-employment loan scheme for the youth.