After 30 years of service as a noon-meal worker at the Government Higher Secondary School at Peringolam in Kozhikode, Iyyamkunnath Devi called it a day a few months ago.

Being a daily-wage worker at the mercy of the school management, she couldn’t have expected any retirement benefits from the government as she leaves. Calmly, the elderly widow, in her late 60s, went home to spend rest of her life with her only son’s widow and children.

Ms. Devi’s empty-handed retreat from the school at the end of a prolonged spell of service, however, had left a lingering soreness with her co-workers, teachers and the students, whom she had been feeding all these years. Led by a teacher-in-charge of the noon meal committee P. Bavakutty, they sat one day to discuss the possibility of offering “some help” to Ms. Devi, whom they fondly called Deviyedathi .

Under the initiative of the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) they decided to collect an amount to be given to the retiring member. Teachers, students, and the public, all responded overwhelmingly to the call. A sum of Rs.1, 25,000 was raised at the end, with which a pension scheme was opened forDeviyedathi. “We had never imagined that people would respond in such an overwhelming manner to this,” said Mr. Bavakutty.

From the amount, Rs.1 lakh was deposited in a pension scheme in her name with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) while the rest, (Rs.25,000) was given to her as a gratuity during a public function organised at the school recently. “A pension scheme for a daily-wage worker under the initiative of a school PTA would probably be the first of its kind anywhere in the State,” said Sasidharan Pullangotte, the PTA president.

“We believe that the Rs.750, though small, that would reach her as pension every month, would at least make a small difference to Deviyedathi’s life,” said the PTA president.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Jabir Mushthari / Kozhikode – January 13th, 2015